


We Might Fall

by aForgottenWeasley



Series: The Long Lost Stilinski [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Darach - Freeform, F/M, Humor, Hunters, Hurt/Comfort, Mentions of vampires, a little fluff, human sacrifices, mentions of a hybrid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-20
Updated: 2013-11-27
Packaged: 2017-12-24 03:41:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 170,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/934878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aForgottenWeasley/pseuds/aForgottenWeasley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Beacon Hills gang is surprised to find out that Stiles has a twin who shows up to meet her biological father and brother for the first time. With the Alpha Pack wreaking havoc and a mysterious person committing ritual sacrifices, Stiles just wishes his sister would stay out of it. But there's more to his sister, Avery, than meets the eye. [Season 3 with an added OC]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay.. so a handful of chapters for this story was written some time ago and then tossed in the recycle bin. I was and still am self-conscious about this and didn't like the direction it was heading so I gave up. Then the mid-season finale happened and BAMM!, a little inspiration came back so I'm going to give it another shot. This will be the FIRST and ONLY fic that I will be posting that doesn't have each and every chapter completed for it so please be patient and let me know your thoughts about it. If it's so-so decent, I'll gladly pick up the pace and try to knock out more chapters but if it's horrible, I'll kick it back to the bin. I just really want to experiment so if this story gets deleted at one point, don't say I didn't warn you.
> 
> So now that that's out of the way, try and enjoy this and be on the lookout in the upcoming week/weeks for another published TW short-fic that I'll be uploading :) Let's see if I can handle writing to separate stories at the same time!
> 
> Alright, just so you know, I've never written a story that followed through with the way things went down in a certain season but I'm going to try it out here. A certain relationship will NOT happen because as much as they might seem cute together, I planned this fic before I even knew this character was going to have a love interest so yeah.. that relationship won't happen and I'll try to work the season around it. Understand? Also, I possibly might add the cliché scent marking and body warmth of a werewolf.
> 
> Enjoy!

Stiles parked his jeep directly on the Lacrosse field, glad that school was finally out. Had Coach Finstock, or any other school official seen his parking spot, he'd had gotten an earful and lecture about not parking his jeep on the field.

"So you really think she's going to come back to you?" Stiles asked, hopping out of the driver's side while Scott climbed out of the passenger side.

His best friend had just gotten done telling him about Allison and their break, and how Allison was leaving for the summer to reflect about the decisions she's recently made. "Yeah, I know she is." Scott answered as Stiles opened up the back of his jeep. "What about you and Lydia?"

"Uh-" Stiles sighed and helped Scott pull out their Lacrosse gear. "-well my ten year plan for making Lydia fall in love with me may have to stretch to fifteen but the plan is definitely still in motion."

The boys took their gear and walked towards the middle of the field. "Why don't you just ask her out?"

Stiles sarcastically laughed. "Yeah, 'kay. Why don't you just get in the goal and help me make team captain like you promised there, big guy."

Stiles set up a good ways away from the goal while Scott stood ready in front of said goal. "Hey, you know what I just realized? I'm right back where I started." Scott voiced.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean no Lacrosse, no popularity, no girlfriend. Nothing."

"Dude, you still got me." Stiles managed to look slightly offended.

Scott grinned. "I had you before."

"Yeah and you  _still_ got me." Stiles explained as Scott chuckles. "Okay? So life fulfilled."

"Very."

"Now, remember no wolf powers." Stiles says as he twirls his lacrosse stick in hand and bends down to pick up the ball.

Scott nodded. "Got it."

"Nah, I mean it. No super fast reflexes, no super eyesight, no hearing, none of that crap. Okay?"

"Okay. Come on." Scott whacked each side of the goal with his stick, ready for Stiles to give him his best throw.

Stiles took a second to relax, pulling back to throw only to freeze. "You promise?"

"Would you just take the shot already?" Scott secretly grinned as Stiles readied himself again, his eyes glowing yellow as Stiles launched the ball to make a goal.

_Thwap!_

"I said no wolf powers!"

* * *

The boys spend the rest of the day with Scott "teaching" Stiles some new skills. Of course, that was after Scott stopped using his supernatural abilities and Stiles threatened to stick things in places Scott didn't ever want things stuffed.

The sun soon vanished from the sky and the boys packed up their gear. Scott promised they had all of the summer to practice and even time during the school year since Lacrosse didn't start towards the end of the school year to begin with.

With promises to hang out over the upcoming months, plans of video game marathons and movie marathons with Lacrosse practice in between, the two friends vow to put all the supernatural drama behind them for once and try to move on with their lives.

Stiles soon drops Scott off at his house before making his way home.

When Stiles does get home, it's to find his Dad's police cruiser already sitting in the driveway. Normally, that'd be a welcoming sight but since his Dad was supposed to be working the night shift, it didn't sit well with him. The last time his Dad had come home early, it was because the higher ups didn't think John was capable of serving the County when he couldn't even control his own son.

Throat tightening, Stiles pocketed his keys and made his way inside.

"Dad? You down here?" He called out as soon as the door was shut behind him.

"Dining room.", came John's reply.

Stiles followed the familiar path to the dining room only to find his Dad still in uniform and already nursing a glass of Scotch. Dread pooled in Stiles' stomach as he shakily stepped closer. "Dad?" He gulped when John's expression stayed grim and void of any emotion. "Is everything okay? You didn't get fired, did you?" He asked. He really needed to work on his brain-to-mouth filter.

"No." John grunted and sipped his drink. "Work's fine. We're fine. Don't worry about that." He rambled and now Stiles was really nervous. Rambling was Stiles' tick, not his Dad's. "This is, uh, more personal. It involves the both of us and I don't know-.. I don't want you to-.." John sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Whoa, hey." Stiles sank into a chair at the table. "Breathe, Dad. Relax." He stated calmly and boy, wasn't this just fucked up. John is usually the one having to calm Stiles down. Not the other way around. "What's going on?"

John took a deep breathe, downed the rest of drink before staring Stiles in the eyes. He didn't need to be a werewolf to know that whatever was going to be said, it was going to be an emotional talk. It was all there in his Dad's eyes. "I, uh, I got a call today at work." John told him. "Took me by surprise, if I'm being honest. She had completely fallen off the face of the earth after the first year and we didn't know if-.."

"Wait, what?" Stiles cut him off. "Who are you talking about?"

Stiles' heart was beating erratically now, his confusion only growing bigger by his Dad's whole demeanor. Who was this  _she_  and why did they think she had fallen off the face of the earth?

"We were planning to tell you but then your Mom-" John's voice wobbled and he had to clear his throat before continuing. "-your Mom passed away and I didn't know what else to think and I never got around to telling you because I didn't even know if she was still alive or-"

"Dad." Stiles sighed. "Stop." John shut his mouth. "Breathe." John took a breath. "Now tell me who this person is?"

"Please don't be angry with me." John's voice was meek and vulnerable, and Stiles doesn't like seeing his Dad like this at all.

"Never." He states because who was Stiles to get angry over a secret when he had one of his own. Several of his own that could possibly save numerous lives if he could just tell his Dad that werewolves were real. Magic was real. That the supernatural existed.

Holding his Dad's gaze, Stiles grips one of his Dad's hands that's sitting atop the table, holding it tight and leans forward in his chair, ready to hear what it is his Dad is freaking out over.

"You have a sister." And  _whoa_! Hold the fuck up."A twin sister to be exact."

Stiles is speechless. He's actually speechless with a million questions flashing through his mind but all he can do is sit there, gape, and stare. His grip on his Dad's hand loosens and he slumps back into his seat, heart beating fast, and he just doesn't know what to say to that.

He wants to ask  _how_  but he's pretty sure how it happened.

He wants to ask why he's barely finding out but he's also pretty sure his Dad already answered that.

And he wants to know  _why_ his sister didn't grow up with them.

The questions are just repeating themselves over and over in his head but he can't work his mouth to actually voice any of them. The second he finally manages to open his mouth, a glass is slid in front of him with the smallest amount of alcohol in it. Stiles picks it up without thinking and downs it, wincing at the burn at the back of throat and coughing when he can't handle it.

Stiles slides the glass back towards his Dad who refills it but keeps it for himself. "Why now?" He finally croaks.

John sighs, picks up his glass and takes a drink. The kitchen falls dead silent but when John finally manages to speak, his gaze is downcast as if he's reminiscing. "W-when your Mom was pregnant, it wasn't exactly planned." He tells Stiles. "And we weren't financially stable to support one child much less two!" John scoffed and took another drink. "We knew we weren't going to be able to do it. I wasn't making enough money and even if your Mom had started to work, we had no money for a babysitter. We had no help at all." His voice wobbled and Stiles immediately leaned forward, gripping his Dad's hand again.

"Dad, it's okay. I'm not mad." Which was the honest truth. He wasn't mad, he was just beyond shocked. He had a sister, an honest god sister. It wasn't just him and his Dad anymore but why was his Dad telling him now?

"We, uh, we didn't know your genders. Your Mom wanted it kept a secret." John explained. "And when she went into labor, she told the Doctor we didn't want to know the sexes because we had to give one of you up and she didn't want to make the decision herself."

"So what did you do?" Stiles asked.

"We asked the nurses to choose for us." John admitted. "When we told them that we had to give one of you up, they were understanding. And then your Mom asked them to bring only one of you back and put up the other for adoption."

"Did you know you the other baby was a girl?"

"Only after all the adoption papers were typed up and she was placed with another family." John said. "None of us could agree on whether we wanted an open or closed adoption so we settled with telling the other family that  _if_ they wanted to send updates, we'd gladly accept it. We left it at that but when the family didn't send updates after the first year, your Mother and I grew curious so we attempted to track them down but we couldn't find them."

"And now you finally found something out about her? Are you even sure it's her?" Stiles wondered.

"Oh yeah." John confirmed. "She-.. Avery had her birth certificate with her adoptive parents' names that I attempted to track down. The only reason I didn't find her was because her adoptive parents actually passed away and she was put back into the system and given to a new family."

"Wow." Stiles breathed. "You actually talked to her?"

"I did." John huffed a laugh. "She sounds beautiful. Makes me wonder who she looks like."

The father/son duo fell into a round of silence as John twirled the glass in his hands. Stiles sat there, letting all the information sink in and started to wonder to. If this was all true, who did she look like? Did she have their Mom's eyes or Dad's? Did she resemble Stiles at all because of their twin status? Did she have moles dotting her face and neck like himself?

"So.." Stiles sighed as he rubbed his head, his buzzcut rough against his palm. "-why are you telling me this now? Does she want to visit or something?"

"Or something." John mumbled. When he remained quiet and looked up, he found Stiles staring at him, arms flailing and expecting a better answer. "She's coming tomorrow." John finally blurted. "She, uh, she wants to get to know us so she asked if she could possibly move in with us while she completed her High School career here." Stiles gaped and John hurried with the rest of what he was going to say. "We have that extra room so she can stay in there and she said not to worry about any of her expenses. She says she has that all taken care of."

"Mhm." Stiles hummed suspiciously. "And how does a sixteen year old have all her expenses taken care of already?"

John shrugged. "I don't know, son, but she said she'd explain more tomorrow."

"Oh. Okay then." Stiles' lips twitch downward for a split second. "I guess I'm getting a sister, huh?"

"Looks like it." John nodded.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just so you know, I did warn that this would be somewhat cliche. I have trouble with my OC's being Mary-Sues but I really am working on that hence the "this story being an experiment" comment in the first AN. If you have constructive criticism, by all means, leave it. But if you're going to be snobbish, there's a red X at the corner of your screen. Get acquainted with it. And I don't mean to sound like a b*tch because I'm very laid-back but it is what it is.
> 
> On a lighter note, if you're still interested in this story, don't get too comfortable with back-to-back updates. After chapter 3, episode 1 of season 3 starts so the updates are going to slow down. Sorry!

The following day is a mix of emotions for Stiles. While he had accepted the fact that he had a sister, a twin sister, he couldn't help but think that maybe she wasn't his sister at all. Sure his Dad told him everything and confirmed that he indeed did have a sister but it would be just his luck that someone else found out and took his sister's place in order to get closer to Scott or the Hale Pack. At least what was left of the Hale Pack. The last he had heard, Erica and Boyd went missing but Derek nor Isaac was willing to give up any more information. And Peter, well going to Peter wasn't an option.

His Dad had took the day off after explaining to his co-workers what was going on and they gladly called in other people to make sure they had enough Deputies on call and patrolling the town. Stiles and John had spent the morning half of the day cleaning out the spare room, the room that had once been a Study before Miriam had fallen sick and confined herself to it so John could get a good night's rest when he had gotten out of work in their bedroom. Some of the smaller knick-knacks that they had left in the room trudged up long forgotten memories and the boys had to take a couple minute breaks every now and then to collect themselves.

All while dusting the room, flipping the mattress, and changing sheets and pillow cases- Stiles couldn't help but wonder if Avery really was who she said she was. Every time John glanced at him, he had to force a meek smile just so his Dad didn't suspect anything. And if Avery really was who she said she was, well then, he was going to welcome his sister with open arms.

* * *

Avery was finally in Beacon Hills.

Beacon Hills where her family resided, the family that she'd finally get to meet face-to-face after sixteen years. She hadn't known she was adopted up until an incident that landed her in the hospital and she figured out she had a completely different blood type than her parents. When confronted, the parents gave up what very little information they had and let her do what she wanted to do with it.

A month later Avery was transferred to yet another family, brothers, who treated and raised her better than the set of parents she grew up with. They eventually helped her track down her biological family, gave her the option of staying with them or getting to know her real family, and even offered to pay for all her expenses no matter what she chose until she was considered a legal adult.

So two years later, Avery finally took them up on their offer. The brothers weren't taken by surprise at all with her decision- even going as far as hiring some help to pack up all her belongings that were being shipped down there after she had made it safely to Beacon Hills.

She sat at an empty park table, trying to gather her courage and drive to the address she had memorized. She was used to being stared at so the stares she was receiving from passing mothers and other teenagers right now didn't phase her one bit. After all, being clad in leather pants that left just enough room to maneuver around, dark feminine doc martens, and a leather bomber jacket didn't exactly scream  _trustworthy._ Even underneath her leather jacket, she wore a fitted black tee that was spandex-like but when that's the most comfortable outfit for riding a motorcycle for days on end, what else would you expect?

Breathing in and out deeply, Avery took out her phone from her jacket pocket. Speed dialing the first person in her list, she waits patiently until she knows the person has answered.

"I'm here. I made it to Beacon Hills perfectly fine."

" _And have you met your twin? Are they treating you fine?"_

"Um, no." Avery mumbled. "I'm sitting in a park right now trying to collect myself before showing up. I called my Da- John," She corrected. "-and let him know I'll be there within fifteen minutes."

" _Oh,_ ma petite,  _he is your Father. You are allowed to call him 'Dad', you know?"_

"Yes, well, I want to get to know him before I let the word 'Dad' slip out."

" _I see. Well, that's very understandable."_ Silence falls between the two callers before the man on the other end of the line speaks up.  _"Well, I guess it's time to meet them, yes? You should be on your way."_

"Yeah, I should." Avery sighed as she stood. "Thank you, 'lijah. For everything."

" _You're more than welcome. Be sure to keep me updated."_

"Will do. Goodbye."

Avery waited until Elijah said his 'goodbye' before pocketing her phone and zipping up her leather jacket. She picked up her black helmet from the bench where she was sitting and slipped it down over her head as she walked towards her green and black Kawasaki sports bike.

Swinging one leg over, Avery settled herself down and started the engine, revving it twice before pulling out and headed towards the Stilinski household.

* * *

Stiles was a fidgeting mess. His Dad has just told him that Avery would be there any minute now and he flipped. He's a mess of mainly two emotions- excitement and wariness- and wants to get the introductions over and done with. He even went as far as inviting over Scott, leaving out the details of who his mystery guest truly was but told him to keep his nose peeled for anything smelling non-human.

Scott had tensed at his best friend's vague explanation but was only soothed by the wave of eagerness and happiness that was rolling off of the Sheriff.

Stiles and Scott were out by the Jeep just shuffling around when Scott heard it. The rumble of a motorcycle's engine peaked his interest, not only because not many people drove motorcycles in Beacon Hills, but because the really rad green motorcycle was being maneuvered by a slim figure. A slim figure that was pulling right up behind his best friend's jeep.

Scott could hear Stiles' heartbeat picking up speed, the rush of eagerness and wariness becoming more prominent as the slim figure, female by the looks of the build, parked and slid off the bike. Scott frowned at Stiles' behavior and when John came out of the house mumbling about  _children and their damn dangerous ways of transportation,_ his frown deepened even further and his brows came together in confusion.

John joined Stiles and Scott just as the bike rider unzipped her jacket. Scott's eyes, like any other guy in the world, followed the zipper until his eyes zeroed in on her chest. Well, at least until Stiles elbowed him sharply in the ribs. The helmet came off next as she turned to her bike, giving the boys her back, and settled the helmet atop the bike's seat. She pulled a hair-tie from her hair, letting brown waves cascade passed her shoulders and smoothed down what the helmet made frizzy.

When she turns around to finally face them, they're all struck by the three obvious similarities between the girl and Stiles. She has the same fair complexion as Stiles as well as the thick eyebrows but they actually work in her favor. The closer she gets to them, it's obvious to John and Stiles that Avery took after Miriam and her brother with the whiskey colored eyes.

The smell of salt infiltrates Scott's senses and when he looks towards John, the man is smiling fondly at the female with tears swimming in his eyes. The second she gets close enough, John has her wrapped up tightly in a hug.

Scott can see the female tense but seconds later, her arms are wound around the Sheriff's mid-section and she is returning the embrace. "Dude." Scott nudges Stiles and nods towards John and the girl. "Is this who I'm supposed to sniff out?" At Stiles' nod, Scott takes a quick whiff of the air. "Smells human but who is she?"

Stiles is pretty much speechless as he watches his Dad and sister embrace and when she turns her watery gaze towards him, he beams at her. "My sister, dude." He tells Scott. "My twin sister."

Avery's gaze slides from Stiles to Scott before falling back on her brother. When John finally releases her, she takes a hesitant step towards Stiles who opens his arms for her next. She quickly latches on, her grip instantaneous as she cries openly into his shoulder. "I can't believe I'm finally meeting you." She chuckles. John beams at his daughter and son, Scott slowly getting over the shock as he lets the waves of happiness flow over him.

Stiles chuckles back, his arms wrapped around his sister as he lets a few joyous tears fall. "Likewise." he mumbles. "I'm Stiles, by the way."

Avery pulls back, her face splitting into a grin. "Oh good." She sighs in relief. "I didn't think I was going to be able to pronounce your name."

"You saw my name?" Stiles pouts at the same time Scott chirps, "You know his name?!"

Avery glances with glee between the two boys before Stiles jumps in yet again. "Twenty bucks and you forget you ever saw it."

"Thirty and we have a deal."

Stiles huffs, Scott snorts, and John groans. "Of course they'd alike."

As Stiles reaches for his back pocket where his wallet resides, Avery quickly puts a stop to it. "I'm joking! I'm not going to take your money." She laughs. "Your name is already forgotten. You are officially Stiles up in my brain." She says as she taps her temple. "And in case you didn't already know, I'm Avery."

The reunited family soon falls into a silence after that, the three of them just taking it all in when Scott clears his throat. "Well, I guess I should get going now." He awkwardly laughs. "This seems like a major family moment and yeah.."

"Yeah." John agrees. "We should really head inside anyway and talk." He addresses the group. "Stiles can fill you in tomorrow, Scott."

"Sounds sweet." Scott nods before turning to Avery to quickly introduce himself. "I'm Scott- your brother's best friend. Looks like we'll be seeing a lot of each other if you stick around."

Avery smiles at Scott's friendliness. "Hi, Scott. Bye, Scott." She says as he jogs backwards.

"Oh and Scott?" John calls out. "Keep this on the down low, will you? You can fill in your Mom but that's it until we can get Avery settled in."

"Will do, Sheriff!"

They watch as Scott quickly disappears down the block, the family of three turning to face one another. "So.." Avery drawls.

"So.." Stiles repeats, a grin permanently plastered on his face, his hands now shoved in his pockets.

"So.." John claps his hands in front of him as he balances on the heels of his feet. "-first things first. Who in their right mind lets a sixteen year old drive a motorcycle? Do you know the death rate of those things?"

Avery just laughs as she shrugs, her tinkling laughter infectious as Stiles soon joins in. John shakes his head at the two of them before gesturing towards the house to lead them inside.

..

..

Once inside, the boys let Avery take her time in taking in her surroundings. She walks very slowly by a wall of pictures, smiling at little Stiles in his growing stages, John chasing after little Stiles, and Miriam openly laughing with either Stiles in her lap or John by her side.

There was a moment when John and Stiles got very quiet, the boys not knowing whether or not Avery knew about Miriam's passing but when they saw her trace one photo with her finger and tears well up, they figured she knew after all.

As Avery settled down into a sofa chair, taking off her jacket along the way, John swallowed around the lump in his throat. "So I take it you know about Miriam? Your Mother."

Avery nods while fidgeting with the zipper on her jacket. "I.. uh.. this isn't my first trip to Beacon Hills." She tells him.

"Excuse me?"

"I- I've been here before." She locks gazes with John. "I found out I was adopted at fourteen. My adoptive parents didn't know much since they weren't the ones to originally adopt me but they did give me the name Stilinski and pointed me towards California. Google did the rest."

"Looks like detective skills runs in our blood." Stiles grins.

Avery smiled at that but John frowned. "You sought us out before? Why didn't you stop by? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because," Avery sighed. "-the first time, I didn't dig deep enough. I didn't know Mo- I didn't know Miriam had passed away." She corrected herself. She hadn't known Miriam enough to call her Mom even though that's exactly what she was. "After asking around for the Stilinski's, I was pointed in this direction but I noticed they only ever mentioned a father and son. They never mentioned anything about a mother so I did more research and that's when I found the obituary." She replied honestly. "I cried, of course, went out and bought some flowers to lay on her grave, and then I went home."

Stiles felt a pang of sadness for the girl seeing as she'd never get to know their Mom. "So this is your second time here?"

"Not exactly." She sheepishly grins. "I came back twice more, each time laying flowers down for Mir-"

"Mom." John cut her off. "You can call her Mom."

Tears swim in Avery's eyes as she nods. Taking a deep breath, she continues. "I came back to lay flowers for Mom and when I drove by here, I always chickened out. But now, here I am."

Both Stilinski men smile fondly at Avery, the girl wiping away her tears with her fingers.

"You were the one who left the white lilies, weren't you?", John realized. When Avery nodded her confirmation, he chuckled. "I always wondered who left those but I never found out."

Avery chuckled along with him as they fell into a round of silence before Stiles finally broke it. "So.." he sighed, rubbing his palms on his pant covered legs. "-I have a question for you." He smirks at Avery.

"Shoot!"

"How in the  _hell_  did you manage to convince your other Dad to let you ride a motorcycle all the way here? And where exactly are you from, anyway?"

"First of all," Avery laughed. "-he's not my  _other Dad_. They're both like older brothers."

"Huh?" Stiles grunted. "But Dad said you had another family.." He trailed off when he saw Avery biting her lip nervously.

Sighing, she slumped in her seat. "I might as well tell you. You're going to find out sooner or later anyway."

"Good choice." John grunts.

"So, uh, I'm sure you know that my first adoptive parents passed away, right?"

"Right." The Stilinski men agree.

"Well, after that, I was put back into the system for a whole year. When I was nearing three years of age, a family from Rhode Island came in and took a liking to me. They adopted me and we settled down in Louisiana." Avery shifted in her seat but kept on going. "My second family weren't very.. paternal." She cringed. "And the older I got, the more they just didn't care. There.. there was an incident that- I won't go into detail because it's called the past for a reason- but there was an incident where I ended up being saved by two brothers." Avery told them. "They were very well mannered and after my hospital visit, they stuck around. T-they didn't like the way I was being treated and so they took me away-"

"They took you away! What do mean they took you away?!"

Avery gulped at the livid look on John's face though she mentally congratulated him on not blowing up too bad. "Turns out that all it took was the wave of a very generous check for my so-called parents to give me up."

" _WHAT?!"_ And there's the explosion. "How could they-.. Why would-.. no, you know what?" He patted down his pockets. "I'm going to make a call and make sure those people don't ever get to adopt another child again and do some background checks on these two brothers."

"Stop.. stop." Avery pleaded. "There's no need." She tells him. "Elijah and Nik made sure that they wouldn't be able to adopt again. Trust me." She feebly smirked. "And the brothers are perfectly fine. All they really wanted was for me to be treated right. To get an education and to live my life. There's nothing wrong with them and if you don't believe that, well then look at me! Do you really think they'd hire someone to follow me on bike all the way to Beacon Hills to make sure I got here safely? That they'd encourage me to make the trip and pay for all my expenses while I stay here?"

John deflated while Stiles gaped at his sister's story and at the act of kindness these brothers were showing his sister. "They really did that for you?"

"Yeah." Avery breathed a sigh of relief after getting that out. "They're really great guys and supported me with every decision I've made. Even when I got obsessed with motorcycles." She chuckled. "After I illegally rode one, they were kind of pissy with me but then Nik, ever the rebellious brother, taught me how to ride and made me get my license."

As Stiles and Avery talked about her motorcycle and his Jeep, John grew more at ease about the two brothers who had whisked away his daughter from a crappy life. He learned that the brothers were ridiculously rich, which was why Nik had bought Avery a motorcycle without even batting an eye, and that they were private beings. Avery had been home-schooled and was even taught self-defense.

The more Stiles learned about his sister, the more he fell in love with the idea of having a sister. His protective instincts had immediately kicked in and when he heard how she had learned self-defense, he couldn't help but wonder  _why_ she learned self defense. And then his mind wandered back to when she said  _it's called the past for a reason_  and he couldn't help but wonder what had happened in her past. Something must have happened to her if she had immediately said that during her explanation.

The trio spent hours talking, Stiles even going as far as letting his Dad have a cheat day and eat pizza with them when they lost track of time. They learned as much as they could about Avery and her home in New Orleans seeing as she was kind of private about her life. They learned that Elijah and Nik were the only living members of their family and that they came from England before they settled down in New Orleans where they were practically royalty there.

As the night grew darker, and no-one could contain their yawns, John declared it time for bed.

"The spare room is yours." He tells Avery. "You can fix it up however you like whenever you're ready."

"Thank you." She tells him with a smile. "My personal belongings should be getting here with the next two days. And as for everything else," She pulls out a black credit card from a pocket in her jacket. "-I have no spending limit as long as it's used for myself settling in and not useless crap I don't need."

John eyed the card critically. "I better not come home to ridiculous gaming systems and what not." He says. "It might not be my money but I will respect the wishes of your caregivers and make sure you're behaving with their money."

Avery chuckles when she hears Stiles grumble out an, "Aw, man."

"Don't worry, John-" John opened his mouth to cut her off but Avery held up her hand. "-and I will call you John until I'm comfortable enough to say Dad and not feel weird."

John's shoulder slumped. "Fair enough."

"But as I was saying, there's no need to worry. I'll be the perfectly responsible young lady I was taught to be."

John smiles at her as Stiles fake-coughs out a  _suck up!_ and turns towards his room. "Well, at least one of you is responsible."

"Hey! I'm responsible." Stiles' outraged cry is met by the shutting of his father's bedroom door and muffled laughter behind it. "I am." He tries convincing his sister.

Avery smirks in response, patting his cheek affectionately. "I'm sure you are,  _twin._  I'm sure you are."

"Why do I get the feeling you don't believe me?" His eyes narrow in suspicion.

"Because you're my twin." She puts emphasis on the word. "I'm like two percent responsible and ninety-eight percent hell raiser. I'm pretty sure it runs in our blood."

Stiles grins mischievously at that. "I have a feeling this summer is going to be awesome."

"So do I. Now let's get some sleep. I have a feeling your friend is going to want the 4-1-1 tomorrow."

Stiles laughs as they part ways- pointing out the restroom before Avery is hidden from sight. When he makes himself comfortable in his room, he strips out of his clothes and falls atop his bed.

Having a sister- a twin sister- was going to be a blast.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is [Avery](http://i43.tinypic.com/5ma87t.jpg) and [Avery's motorcycle](http://i42.tinypic.com/14kjnyv.jpg) :) Just click the links to see!   
> While I am aware that Elijah and Nik sound very familiar, they are going to be nothing like their characters from that other show! I'm going to change up their background so please, stick with me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: I decided to make this chapter all about their Summer together and any shenanigans they might get into :) Just a warning, it's gonna seem choppy but page breaks will signify a new day throughout the summer. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Links for what Elijah and Nik look like will be at the bottom along with the link for my Polyvore account where I'll start to make up outfits for Avery. Her first outfit- from this chapter where she goes out to eat with Stiles and Scott- is already posted. All you need to do is click on the Polyvore link and hover your mouse over the sets to see which set goes with what story and it's chapter.

"So.. a sister, huh?" Scott asks.

Stiles had gone over to the McCall household the following morning when Avery started getting her things delivered to the house. Apparently, Elijah had them driven by another hired employee who had followed Avery hours she had left New Orleans. When Stiles asked if she wanted help setting up her room, she had said she wanted to decorate on her own and that he should do whatever he wanted- she'd catch up with him later.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I don't know." Stiles shrugged. "I only found out the night before and I was still in shock. Shock that I had another family member other than my Dad and shock because well.." He trailed off. "-what if she had been a supernatural being trying to get to you wolves?"

"Well then you guys would've taken care of her like any other threat." Melissa chimed in with her two cents. "But since she is no threat, how does it feel to not be an only child anymore?"

"I'm not sure yet." Stiles admits. "We haven't really gotten the chance to hang, just the two of us, but I have a feeling I'll like it. We actually look alike which is rare for twins of the opposite gender to pull off." Scott nods along and agrees with that. "She's going to start school with us in September and yeah.. I don't know what else to say." He laughs. "You kind of have to meet her yourself. I don't think any words I use to describe her will do any justice."

"Aww." Melissa coos. "Look at you being the sweet brother already."

Stiles blushes while Scott laughs and agrees with his Mom. Very quickly though, Scott's laughter drifts off and he sits up straighter while his head tilts to the side in a curious manner. "Did you tell her where you were going to be?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I hear a motorcycle." Scott says. He stands up, Melissa following behind him as they go to one of the windows. After pulling back the curtain, sure enough, Avery sits by the curb on her bike as she checks something on her phone before looking back up at the house. "Did you give her the address here?"

"No but Dad probably did."

The three insiders quickly make their way to the front door, Melissa opening up and walking outside. When Avery catches sight of Stiles and Scott, she smiles before cutting off her bike and parking it where it sat.

"Hey!" She greets as she jogs up the sidewalk. "John texted me the address when he left for work. I hope you don't mind me showing up."

"No way, it's totally cool." Stiles pushes himself to the front of the group. "You had to meet the McCalls anyway and here's your chance."

"Oh, good." She sighs in relief.

"Yeah, so, you met Scott yesterday." Stiles gestures to Scott who waves at her. "And this is Ms. McCall but we call her Mom or Melissa."

Avery smiles at Melissa in greeting, offering her hand only to have it pushed away as Melissa drags her into a hug. "You're beautiful!" She exclaims. "And you look just like your Mother." She says in awe.

"T-thank you." Avery stammers before introducing herself to Melissa.

Scott leads them inside where Avery retells her story to the McCalls even though Stiles had already filled them in. In return, Scott tells some stories about himself and Stiles as they grew up with Melissa throwing in bits and pieces from her point of view. They went back and forth with stories of their past, Avery offering very little about herself but Stiles did find out she used to have a pet Great Dane who she had named Buster. Once he was full grown, he disappeared but Avery had a feeling he was stolen. Something about a truck constantly driving by slowly whenever Buster was out was what led her to that conclusion.

Time quickly slips by and Stiles is surprised at how easily Avery fits into his life. Everything just clicked with her and there are no problems whatsoever. With everything he heard about bickering siblings, he figured he and Avery would butt heads over something but they got along rather quite swell.

Melissa soon gets up, having to go shower and get ready for her shift at the Hospital. When Scott is sure the shower turned on and drowned out their voices, he eagerly turns to Avery.

"So, I've been dying to ask you.." He blurts "How long did it take for you to get your license for that bike?"

Avery smirks mischievously as Stiles groans. "Ugh. And so it starts."

"What starts?" She coyly asks.

"My best friend officially liking my sister better."

Scott laughs and claps Stiles on the back. "No way, man. I just want a bike. I'm thinking about saving up."

"Excellent." Avery says in her most villainous voice. "It should only take you about a month and a half. I can teach you on my bike and then we'll go from there."

"Sounds like a plan." Scott beams.

* * *

Stiles and Avery are calm and quiet, the only sound throughout the house being the baseball game John is watching downstairs and the clicking of keys from Stiles' and Avery's laptops.

Avery's room was all done up, the walls being a deep shade of blue with very little posters covering up said walls and glow-in-the-dark stars littering the ceiling and the tops of each wall. She had kept the wooden bed frame, complete with two small built in bookshelves, when she found out it belonged to her Mom but bought a new box spring and mattress. The mattress was one of those memory foam ones so more often than not, Avery found Stiles keeping her company in her room. He always set up on her bed with his laptop while she set up at her metal desk that John had approved of her buying for the room. Between the wall and her bed, a side-table was snuggled into the corner where Avery hid a small refrigerator beneath it and stocked up on Cran-Apple juice. Stiles was constantly raiding the downstairs fridge so instead of having her drinks stolen or tossed out, she kept them in her room.

A half dry erase board and half cork board was fastened to her door, markers sitting in a cup-holder atop her desk that Stiles always seemed to help himself to. The door started off as having her name written in her handwriting but then one day, she noticed it has said  _Thing 2._ She had chuckled at the name before grabbing her markers and decorating around it.

Then the cork board started gathering pictures, one of Avery with two men who she told them were Elijah and Nik. Elijah, as anyone could easily see, was the more serious of the two. He wore a blazer over a dark dress shirt, slacks, and his dark head of hair was neatly trimmed and slightly ruffled whereas Nik was dressed more casual in a dark blue-gray henley and jeans. While Elijah was clean-shaven and sophisticated, Nik was sporting dark stubble and trimmed dirty blonde hair that had a slight curl to it. The only way you could tell they were related were the similar chiseled facial features and dimpled chin.

After the brother's photo came a picture of Stiles and Avery that Stiles had snapped with his phone and another photo of John reading the newspaper that John kept taking down and hiding. Every picture Avery or Stiles tacked up was always taken down until John came across the photo of himself in uniform and sunglasses. He had studied the picture, trying to figure out if it was old or new but then determined it was new when he spotted Avery's bike in the background. Deciding to finally give in, he left it there.

The two siblings are engrossed with whatever was on their laptop screens when John appears in the doorway. "It's a Friday night and you two are already in pajamas and falling asleep over your damn keyboards."

"It's summer, Dad. Every night is a Friday night." Stiles mumbles, half-awake.

Avery chokes down her laughter by biting her bottom lip before logging quickly out of everything and shutting down her laptop. "So not the point, son." John grumbles before turning to Avery. "What about you? No plans tonight?"

"Nah." Avery yawns and stretches her arms up over her head. "Our third partner in crime is busy being the perfect son and I think we're finally crashing from all those energy drinks we drank earlier."

"I see." John hums. "And is Scott the only friend you've made here? I figured Stiles would've introduced you to that Argent girl? Or the Martin girl.. Lydia was it?"

"No!" Stiles suddenly jerks up. "No, Dad. Allison has gone to Paris and Lydia is.. Lydia is off doing god knows what now that Jackson got shipped off to London."

John smirks as Stiles' cheeks start to flush, his gaze darting towards Avery the second her eyes twinkle mischievously. "I've heard of Scott's history with the Argent girl," She says. "-but who is this Lydia you speak of and why am I only hearing about her now?"

"No-one! She's no-"

"The love of Stiles' life." John snorts. "Or so he says."

" _Ex_  love of my life." Stiles grumbles when he figures he isn't going to be able to save himself. "That was so last month, Dad. She's deeply in love with Jackson and now I will blame you when Avery and Lydia take over the world. I was keeping them apart for a reason."

"And what reason is that?" Avery coyly grins.

"You know why!" Stiles points accusingly at her. "Lydia's the devil incarnate, in a very feminine way might I add, and you're.. well  _you!_ "

John huffs out a laugh. "Son, what are you talking about?"

"She's evil." Stiles playfully glares at his twin. "Just you watch, Dad. If she and Lydia meet, there will be no stopping the two of them."

"Oohh, now I really can't wait to meet this girl."

Stiles' accusing finger turns on John. "See what you started! You just jump started the apocalypse." Turning back to his sister, he closes his laptop and sits up. "I'm pulling out the  _since I'm older card_ and saying that you are not allowed to meet."

"Pft. Who says you're older?" Avery challenges.

She knew she got him there when Stiles' gaze travels back to John who is leaning against the door frame. He's laughing at them, shrugging before telling Stiles that his birth certificate was in his room, in the bottom drawer of his dresser. As Stiles scrambles off the bed to go retrieve it, Avery walks up to her closet and pulls out a suitcase which holds the folder of all her papers. When Stiles makes it back to her room, birth certificate in hand, he gestures for her to go first.

"Ladies first."

Avery rolls her eyes before finding the time. "7:25PM," She states proudly.

Stiles whoops and grins victoriously. "7:23! I'm the older twin!" He beams and shimmies his so-called victory at being the older twin. When he sees his Dad shaking his head at him and Avery smiling smugly, he stops. "Why are you smiling?"

"Because-" She laughs. "-you might be older but now I'm Daddy's little girl." She bats her eyelashes at him.

Stiles' whole demeanor falters as he gapes at his Dad. "Evil!" He hisses and John can't help but numbly agree when Avery playfully cackles like a villain.

Life in the Stilinski household just got a lot more interesting.

* * *

Stiles is running.

Running through the Preserve of Beacon Hills with a gun gripped tight in his hands and wondering how in the hell he got himself into this situation.

His shirt is clinging to his skin from the water that he had fallen into after tripping over a root while his jeans are smudged with mud and grass stains. He's been running for what felt like ages, dodging behind trees, and ducking behind fallen tree trunks and shrubbery to avoid being shot.

Scott and Avery had long been lost and all he wants is to get to the safety of his Jeep.

With his legs burning and his lungs demanding more air than he was providing, he slides behind a tree and attempts to catch his breath. One hand grips tightly to his gun while he bends down in half and rests his other hand on his knee.

Stiles tries to keep his breathing low as to not alert the others to his whereabouts and listens for any snapping of twigs or leaves that would alert him to someone approaching. The second he manages to breathe calmly once again, a branch snapping  _above_ him makes him look up but he was too slow to react before his knee exploded in pain and red soaked his jeans.

" _Fuck!_ " He screams as the shooter jumps down from their perch only to land on bending knees before falling on their ass. "That hurts more than what people say it does."

Feminine laughter sounds after Stiles' scream, the shooter pulling off a black face mask. "Suck it up, you big baby." Avery teases. "It's just a paintball."

"Yeah, a paintball that is fired with compressed air." He scowls. "Where's Scott? I figured he would've won this round?"

Avery looks around before pointing behind Stiles' tree where Scott is running towards them. "Sorry, man." He claps Stiles on the shoulder when he reaches them. "I've been out for like ten minutes already. Headshot." He grimaces as he shows his best friend the mask that had a red splatter of paint atop the head.

"But how?" Stiles gapes. "You're scarily  _alert_ to your surroundings! How did Avery get the jump on you?"

"She's like Katniss Everdeen." Scott grumbles. "Except with a paintball gun and she's crazy good at scaling trees."

"How is that-" Stiles points down to his sister who's still sitting on her ass. "-good at scaling anything? She fell after jumping from wherever it was she was hiding for Christ's sake!"

Avery giggles and shrugs. "If it makes you feel any better-" She glances up at Scott. "-I was aiming for your chest. I think my aim's a little off."

"A little?"

Avery giggles and Scott finally offers his hand to help her up. "Alright, well since I won the most rounds- I vote for burgers, fries, and milkshakes. You two losers are buying."

Both boys glance at each other before shrugging. "Fine." They concede.

"And Stiles, you better pray you remember where you dropped your helmet." Avery suddenly glares at him. "We don't want Dad lecturing us about how we're careless with our things and I don't need another lecture about how I spend money on junk that gets lost way too fast."

"Yeah, yeah." He sighs. "It's down by the stream. We'll pick it up on the way back to the Jeep."

As they trek back to Stiles' jeep, Scott couldn't help but ask, "So it's  _Dad_  now, huh? How did John take that?"

Avery grins as she recalls the memory, trying not to trip over the uneven ground. "He was speechless for a few seconds-"

"It got her out of a lecture when she nearly burned down the kitchen." Stiles snorts, cutting her off.

"Well I told you I was crap in the kitchen." Avery quickly defends herself as the two boys laugh. "Shutup and hurry!" She says and starts to jog. "We still need to get cleaned up and I'm super starving after all that running."

Scott and Stiles share identical grins as they ran after Avery. Food did sound very good right about now.

..

..

With Scott and Stiles' ability to shower and dress under ten minutes combined, they were left waiting for Avery to shower and change. Stiles grumbles impatiently about a female's need to primp and pamper even when they were just going to grab a quick bite to eat and then head home while Scott laughs at his friend's impatient attitude.

Twenty minutes later, Avery finally comes down in a white cotton pleated cropped tee that bared her stomach, black pencil leg slim fit jeans, and a pair of black strappy cork wedges. Her waves cascaded flawlessly around her face and the paleness of her skin tone was really noticeable seeing as her lips were painted a deep burgundy color. A swallow bird necklace and a leather crystal wrap bracelet completes her outfit.

It took everything in Stiles' being to not order her back upstairs and change into an actual t-shirt but when he caught a glimpse of his sister's phone case with the batman symbol being shoved into her pocket, he inhaled and exhaled deeply in order to shove down his big brother instincts. Unbeknownst to her, she had just scored points with that phone case therefore he would lay off of her wardrobe decision.

Scott compliments Avery on her appearance, earning a glare from Stiles before he ushers his sister out to his jeep. She easily takes up the backseat so the boys can sit up front and since the boys were buying, they decide to take her to their favorite diner that was ten minutes out of town.

By the time the three teens get to the diner and make their way inside, all three of them are laughing at their growling stomachs. Each of them orders burgers with everything on them, Stiles and Avery getting curly fries while Scott orders chili cheese fries. Stiles orders a Pepsi, Scott orders Dr. Pepper, and Avery orders a strawberry milkshake that she'd been craving for a while now.

Scott nor Stiles enjoy the looks Avery is getting from the other teens around them or the fact that people are murmuring about the Sheriff's mysterious daughter. Luckily for them, Avery seems like one tough cookie and she ignores all the murmurs while glaring at anybody she catches leering at her.

When their food arrives, Stiles and Scott are impressed with Avery's ability to chow down like one of the boys. They all eagerly dig into the food, talking in between bites about the paintball extravaganza from earlier in the day, and make plans to do that again soon. When Stiles catches his sister eyeing Scott's cheese fries, he distracts his long time best friend while Avery sneaks a cheesy fry or two before Scott finally catches on. In retaliation, he gulps down half of her milkshake only to get a brain-freeze and vow to never do that again.

After all the food was consumed and the trio let their stomachs settle, Stiles orders a veggie burger for his dad before tipping their waitress generously for putting up with their annoying laughter.

When they are only ten feet away from his Jeep, his newest nightmare becomes true.

Lydia is parking her car in the spot next to his Jeep.

Stiles freezes mid-step, Avery and Scott catching on, and by the time Lydia gets out of her car, Stiles is looking for an easy exit.

"Stiles. Scott." Lydia greets them when she spots them. Her gaze then travels over to Avery and one of her meticulously waxed eyebrows raises in a questioning manner. "Girlfriend?" She asks Stiles since Avery was more closer to him than to Scott.

Scott openly laughs while the twins grimace at her implication. "Gross. No." Avery shakes her head.

"And what's wrong with Stiles?" Lydia immediately defends him. After the night with the Kanima fiasco where they finally got Jackson to turn into the werewolf he was meant to be, things had been different. Whatever was between them had changed greatly in that one night and they were on the road to becoming actual friends.

At Lydia's tone, Avery sobers up and eyes the strawberry blonde up and down. Crossing her arms over her chest, she cocks an amused eyebrow back at Lydia. "You must be Lydia Martin." She says. "Strawberry blonde hair, bitchy attitude, and the ex-love of Stiles' life." The boys groan in unison and each take a step back. "I'm Avery. Stiles has been keeping me from meeting you but it looks as if the Fates had us destined to meet."

"Pleasure. I'm sure." Lydia sneers as she adjusts her pink handbag hanging from her shoulder. "But you didn't answer my question. You see, I don't like repeating myself but I will ask one last time. What's wrong with Stiles?"

Avery slowly smirks but Stiles quickly intervenes before the girls can really cause a scene. "Lydia, just- just look at us." He says as he tugs Avery to his side, throwing an arm over her shoulder to keep her in place. "Really,  _really_  look at us and you'll see why we aren't  _dating_." He grimaces over the last word.

Lydia huffs in annoyance but did as she was told. She crosses her arms over her own chest and purses her lips together as she critically eyes Stiles and Avery up and down in the dimming light of the sky. During the tense moment of silence, Lydia's brows furrow in confusion for a few moments before her eyes widen as her gaze quickly darts back and forth between the pair.

"And the genius finally gets it." Stiles sighs.

Avery chuckles, "Now you understand why I said  _gross_?"

"But how?!" Lydia breathes in awe. "We all grew up together and your parents never had another-"

"She's my twin." Stiles speaks softly. Far softer than Lydia or Scott has ever heard him speak. "They gave her up at birth and-"

"-and it's a long story." Avery cuts him off. "But seeing as you probably have dirt on my brother that I haven't heard yet, I'll tell you everything if you agree to a shopping spree with me. I need a female companion to shop with other than these two idiots." She gestures between Stiles and Scott.

"And you'll tell me whatever I have questions about?" Lydia actually thinks about the offer. "No dodging anything?"

"Hm, we'll see." Avery smiles. "As long as you don't attempt to make me buy something I don't like."

The boys glance back and forth between the girls, wondering how in the hell they went from nearly scratching each other's eyes out to making a date for a shopping trip. "Eh, you have cute taste. I'll pick you up at three Wednesday afternoon. Be ready." Lydia tells her before taking her leave and marching up to the diner for what she came for to begin with.

"It's coming." Stiles groans, latching on to Scott with a frightened look in his eye. "The apocalypse is coming!"

* * *

Stiles had been correct when thinking that Lydia and Avery getting together was a bad idea. The two girls had left for their shopping trip wary of one another and came back laughing and gossiping as if they'd been best friends for ages. John was glad that Avery was making friends easily but Stiles wasn't so sure. When Lydia and Avery both got that calculating look in their eye, he knew trouble was brewing.

The girls attempted to give Stiles a better wardrobe and even convinced him to grow his hair out. Although he claimed them to be evil, he couldn't help but feel more comfortable in the clothes they got him and even appreciated the looks that other females were giving him when he grew out his hair.

Surprisingly, Lydia was often now at the Stilinski household hanging around Avery since Allison was gone for the summer. Lydia had been surprised to find out that Avery's choice of transportation had been a motorcycle and, much to Stiles' surprise, had asked for a ride.

If Avery hadn't been his sister, that would've been the best day of Stiles' life.

* * *

As much as Stiles was glad for his sister gaining a female friend, he was glad to finally pull his sister away from Lydia and go out with her and Scott to get milkshakes. There was a local place in town that wasn't very far and served the best milkshakes he'd ever tasted.

So with their last days of Summer dwindling down, the trio found themselves picking up milkshakes and walking around town.

"So are you excited to start public school?" Scott asks.

"Yeah." Avery answers. "You nervous about seeing Allison again?"

Scott sips his milkshake as he thinks about his answer. Over the summer, when Scott thought about picking up his phone and texting or calling Allison, Stiles and Avery were there to gently talk him down. While Stiles stuck with the  _you're a man, man up!_ speech, Avery gave him her honest opinion. She told him to think about it, really think about it and about the last conversation he and Allison ever had. She knew the breakup was a mutual decision and felt that all Allison needed was space so that's what she told him. She told him to give Allison that space and to wait until she got back to Beacon Hills before he attempted to reach out.

The more Scott thought about it, the more he realized Avery had a point. "Yeah." Scott finally admits. "I'm nervous and excited to see her again."

"Aww." Avery teases him.

The trio walk side-by-side with Stiles in between them, Stiles choosing to remain quiet for once as he sucked down his chocolatey goodness.

Scott was telling Avery that his Mom was still complaining about his dirt bike that he had recently purchased and even admitted to throwing Avery herself under the bus by saying,  _well at least it's not one like Avery's! Those are more dangerous,_ and Avery laughed before reaching behind her brother and slapping Scott's shoulder.

Avery was in the midst of tattoo talk with Scott when someone suddenly bumped harshly into shoulder, causing her to spill half her milkshake on the pavement. "Dude, what the hell?!" She shouts as she regains her balance.

Scott nor Stiles had yet to defend her honor so she expected the offending person to be big and surly if her brother hadn't jump down his or her throat yet but when she looks up, she was met with kind blue eyes and the most sheepish expression ever. "I-I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going." The guy looks about her age, taller than herself, her brother, and Scott with light curly hair cropped short. He was a bit pale yet he had a healthy glow about him and his features were chiseled almost too perfectly. The second the word  _cute_ flashes in her mind, Avery shakes her head clear and realizes that she and the stranger had been staring at each other.

"Uh, Isaac?" Stiles clears his throat. "Is everything alright there, buddy?"

Isaac's gaze snaps to Stiles before sliding over to Scott as he starts walking backwards. "Yeah. I, uh, I got to go." He starts walking faster, turning before his gaze slid back to Avery one last time.

"Wait, Isaac!" Scott suddenly calls out. "Is everything alright. Have you heard fro-"

"Later!" Isaac shouts over his shoulder. "I'll talk to you later."

The minute Isaac disappears, Avery whistles lowly. "What's his deal?"

Scott and Stiles share a brief look before Stiles shrugs. "His best friends- our friends went missing at the end of the school year. No-one's heard from them since."

"Oh."

"Yeah." Scott sadly agrees. "I'm sure it's nothing though. He's probably still stressed over it."

"I bet he is." Avery says as she stares dejectedly at her spilled milkshake. The three of them fall silent as Scott continues to stare off at where Isaac disappeared before looking back at Avery and snorting.

"Why are you so down?"

"My milkshake." She whines. "I was really enjoying that and now most of it's gone."

Stiles barks a laugh before shaking his head and wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Come on. Let's go buy you a new one."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Elijah and Nik look like [THIS](http://i44.tinypic.com/29o671i.jpg) and for Polyvore, click [HERE](http://crossxover.polyvore.com/)
> 
> Finally, the next chapter is officially season 3! Sadly, updates will start to slow down so I can finish writing 3A and edit them.
> 
> "Tattoo" is up next where strange occurrences happen and secrets are revealed ;)


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: Check [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/first_day_school_we_might/set?id=95115585) for Avery's school outfit!
> 
> Before you read, please remember that this follows the episode only with an added character and an added scene here in the beginning. So yes, this is filled with spoilers. Read at your own risk.

**Tattoo**

John is exhausted.

He had finally got switched to the day schedule for a couple of days so that he was able to be home at night and make sure his kids got up in time for school. Which is why the night before school was set to start, he is walking in through the front door and wanting to eat whatever health monstrosity Stiles has left for him before heading up to bed.

Instead of finding his home empty, he finds Avery settled at the dining room table in her pajamas, hair held back in a loose ponytail, a book in one hand, and a fork in the other as she pokes and prods at a salad in front of her.

"Ahem." John clears his throat, gaining Avery's attention.

"O-oh, hey, Dad."

"Hey, kiddo." John leans against the wall with a grin. "I figured the house would be empty for a few more hours. Why aren't you with your brother?"

Avery chuckles before setting her book down. "Because Scott wanted one last  _hurrah!_  before we start school tomorrow." She grins as she spears a cherry tomato on her fork and pops it in her mouth. "I heard something about getting a tattoo and I do  _not_  want to be getting a lecture from Melissa about not letting her son doing stupid things without adult supervision."

"Smart girl." John huffs a laugh.

"Damn right. And plus, I needed time to choose my outfit for tomorrow. I'm riding with Stiles for the first day so can I lock up my baby in the garage later tonight since no-one will be here tomorrow?"

"Sure thing." John nods as he makes his way towards the kitchen. "By the way, what did Stiles leave me to eat? Please tell me it's not leafy and green like that rabbit's food you're eating?"

"Hey! I'll have you'll know that there is some grilled pieces of chicken in here." John only grunts in response as he scours the inside of the fridge. "And I'll also have you know that the salad I'm eating  _was_ your dinner but it looked good so I ate it."

"I don't know whether to be happy that I don't have to eat it now or saddened that I now have nothing to eat."

"No need to worry, Sheriff." Avery replies as she gets up and practically skips over to the microwave. Clicking open the door, she pulls out a brown paper bag and tosses it at John. "Your favorite child may or may have not drove into town and picked up a burger with the works with some french fries." John groans in delight as he eagerly opens up the bag and takes a big whiff of the greasy goodness. "But if Stiles asks, you ate the salad and I ate the fast food."

"Deal." He mumbles around a mouth full of french fries.

Avery laughs at him, taking the bag from his hands and shooing him back into the dining room. She takes out his burger and fries, unwrapping the burger and dumping the fries onto a plate before serving up a glass of Cola. When Avery makes her way back to the dining room, John has already taken off his belt and holster with all its accessories, and even slipped out of his outer uniform. The way he is hungrily eyeing the plate of food in her hand has her suddenly laughing.

"Now while I do believe in a healthy diet, I also believe in cheating once or twice a week."

"I like your way of thinking, kid." He agrees easily before digging in.

Avery lets John eat his dinner in peace and eats more of her salad before talking to John about something that had been on her mind since she started calling him  _Dad._ Throughout all her years of living, Avery has gone through a total of three different last names. Robertson, Thompson, and Reynolds. But now, she's hoping that the fourth last name would be her final last name; Stilinski.

"So, I kind of wanna run something by you." Avery says when John finishes off his soda.

"I should've known." John sighs. "That burger was to butter me up, wasn't it?"

"No.. no." She laughs. "I, uh, I wanted to talk to you about my last name."

"Oh."

"Yeah." And now it's Avery's turn to sigh. "The thing is," She says as she averts her gaze, afraid of his answer. "-is that I'm part of this family but I don't exactly  _feel_  like part of this family."

"I don't understand." John leans forward in his seat. "Stiles and I have done everything to make you feel welcomed. Are we doing something wrong?"

Avery shakes her head. "It's just.. you two are Stilinski's and I'm a Reynolds." John watches as she sighs sadly before a grin slowly etches it's way on her face. "But," She slides a manila folder towards him that John hadn't realized was sitting on the table the entire time. "-I can become a Stilinski within the next five minutes if you sign these papers."

John gapes. "What?" His gaze slides down to the folder where he quickly opens it up, flicking through a bunch of legal looking papers.

"I told you that you didn't have to worry about Elijah or Nik." Avery's lips twitch in amusement. "When I told them I wanted to meet you and Stiles, they figured I'd fall in love with my family and had these papers written up. The papers already have their signatures since they were my last legal guardians and my signature as well. All we need is yours to be legally assigned as my guardian and father, and I can become a Stilinski."

"Are you sure you want this?" John looks baffled at his daughter's decision to change her name already.

"Positive." Avery beams as she holds out a pen that John has no idea where it came from. "Sign away, Dad."

John signs the papers with a grin, happily taking the papers with him as he stands. "Congratulations, kiddo. You're an official Stilinski."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

* * *

Avery is up and wide awake with Stiles in his room, standing over his shoulder as he researches about vehicle accidents.

When he had gotten home last night, he told her how Scott chickened out of getting the tattoo seeing as he couldn't tell her Scott's werewolf abilities healed it, and then went into a dramatic retelling of a deer going crazy and jumping through Lydia's windshield. Lydia and Allison had been fine but they were spooked at the sudden impact.

When she had woken up earlier that morning, she had heard him clicking away on his laptop when she got finished with her shower, leaving him to his own devices until she got dressed for school. She had her outfit laid out on her bed and easily wiggled into black skinny jeans, a black spaghetti strap tank top, and threw on a vintage butterfly print kimono jacket over said tank top. She parted her hair down the middle, blow-drying her waves semi-straight, and added a bit of black eye shadow to her eyes and nude lip gloss to her lips. As she slid a titanium circle pendant over her head, she slid her feet into her favorite gray Christian Louboutin leather peep toe ankle boots.

After checking herself out in the mirror that hung on the back of her door, she had then made her way to Stiles' room where he was already dressed in an olive green tee, a green and white plaid throw-over, dark khaki pants, and his favorite pair of Adidas.

John walks into the room decked out in his Sheriff uniform when he hears Stiles' furious typing.

"Do you know how many vehicle collisions last year involved deer? Two hundred and forty seven thousand."

"Oh god, please go to school." John groans.

Avery laughs as she moves to sit on the edge of her brother's bed, not making make a comment. "But that's crossing the road. This one last night came right down the middle." Stiles continues on as if their Dad hadn't said anything.

"I'm not gonna beg 'ya." John sighs as he scratches the back of his head.

"Yeah you could but I'm impervious to your influence anyway."

"You consider a bride?" John tries.

"Couldn't meet my price."

"Extortion?"

Stiles shrugs. "You got nothing on me."

"Of course." John sighs as Avery snorts in amusement. Her dad and brother were really something else. "Help me out here, kid?" He gestures to the back of Stiles' desk chair before he starts to pull Stiles and the chair backward. Avery laughs and quickly helps her Dad out.

"Dad?" Stiles squeaks. "What are you doing?" He tries to type faster the further his body gets away from his desk. "Avery?! Traitor! W-what are you doing? What are you- _arghh._ " He groans and falls out of his chair.

John laughs as Stiles stares up at them with a mock glare. "You're both evil. Both of you!" He moves to sit up when his eyes land on his sister's ridiculously tall heels. "And I hope you trip in those every class you walk in."

"Please." Avery snorts. "I can run miles in these and manage to look flawless. Now up you get. We don't wanna be late." Stiles would have mumbled and grumbled at his sister but the moment she turns in her heels, she trips over her own foot and Stiles forgets what he was annoyed about in the first place.

..

..

"Okay!" Stiles grins as he parks his Jeep in the student parking lot. "We're both sixteen so I feel that we shouldn't treat each other like this is the first grade and have to hold hands everywhere."

"Agreed." Avery chuckles. She and Stiles were making their way up to the school, a backpack slung over Stiles' shoulder while Avery just had a spiral notebook and pen. "You go make bad decisions with Scott and I'll go get my schedule from the front office and make sure they change my last name for future purposes. We'll see each other if we have any classes together."

"Sounds good. See ya, sis."

"See ya, bro."

Avery and Stiles high-five each other before parting ways- Stiles off in search of Scott and Avery walking confidently with her head held high towards the front office. The receptionist was an elderly lady with graying hair and vintage rectangular frames perched on her nose. She finds Avery her schedule and locker with her locker combination when politely asked, and Avery even gets the receptionist to change her last name to Stilinski as she's treated to the woman's ramblings about how sweet the Sheriff is.

As Avery listens to the woman ramble, she sees a staff member walk out of the back office with a sword in his hand and dumbfounded expression etched onto his face when people ask him about the weapon. She takes a moment to laugh at the bizarre school she's now attending before politely stopping the receptionist from rambling and expressing her need to get to class on time. And before she could leave, the receptionist hands her a slip of paper that needs every teacher's signature seeing as she was new and to ensure that the teacher gave her the mandatory textbook.

Walking aimlessly down the hallway in search of her locker, Avery isn't paying much attention to where she's walking when she bumps both her shoulders as if she just walked between two people. Having a momentary flashback to the night Isaac bumped into her, she feels herself grinning before she looks up only to be met with two identical glares.

She cringes under their harsh stares, taking a moment to eye the identical twins up and down and noticing they were both in jeans, leather jackets, motorcycle gloves, and each of them were holding a helmet. "Sorry," She mumbles and returns their glare when all they did was huff and walk away. "Rude much?" She then grumbles at their backs and prepares herself for the day.

By the time sixth period rolls around, Avery is relieved to find Stiles and Scott already sitting in desks even though she had lunch with them. She races to claim the free seat in front of her brother and sighs happily as she turns to face them.

"How's your first day?" Scott chuckles since they forgot to ask her at lunch.

"Good." She tells him. "Finstock's a trip, Morrell is a babe, and Harris is a dick."

"Any drama yet?" Stiles teases.

"Eh, not really." Avery shrugs. "I've been getting looks all morning, though. Jealous, judgmental, and appreciative. From both genders." She says, obviously proud. "But there was that incident this morning with the identical twin brothers." She scowls. "I ran into them, apologized, but they were still kind of dickish about it."

Avery is too caught up in her talk with Stiles and Scott that she doesn't see when Lydia enters the room but she does see when the red-head takes a seat to Stiles' left. Smiling at the red-head, they greet each other before she sees Lydia look over her head with an apologetic look. Turning around, Avery is met with a smiling brunette with curled waves hanging to her shoulders, a jean shirt buttoned over a brown dress with white polka dots, and brown boots that stopped at mid-calf.

Gaze sliding over to a fidgeting Scott, she catches his eye and mouths " _Allison?_ " to which Scott nods his confirmation.

Before Avery can introduce herself, her phone vibrates in her pocket at the same time numerous text tone alerts go off around her. Looking around at everyone's confused expression and wondering what the hell is going on, she looks down at her screen.

" _The offing was barred-"_ A feminine voice reads out what's on her screen and when she looks up, Avery sees a young woman- makeup flawlessly done, and heels clicking against the tiled floor. _"-by a black bank of clouds and the tranquil waterway leading to the uttermost ends of the earth flowed somber under an overcast sky seemed to lead into the heart of an immense darkness."_ She says as she puts down her own phone. "This is the last line to the first book we're going to read."

"Spoiler alert." Avery sings beneath her breath causing a few chuckles from the people surrounding her.

"It is also," The teacher smiles directly at her. Apparently she hadn't said it low enough. "-the last text you will receive in this class. Phones off, everyone."

Avery groans along with a few people but like the rebellious kid she is, she just blacks out her screen and shoves her phone back in her pocket on vibrate. It's not like many people had her number anyway so she wouldn't be getting any texts or phone calls. And if she did, well then they were important and she'd run out of class if the occasion called for it.

Once everything is squared away and Ms. Blake, the teacher who had finally introduced herself after her awesome entrance, gives out the day's assignment- Avery makes her way up to the front to get her slip signed and get her textbook for the school year.

A good handful of minutes later, Avery is in the midst of their writing assignment when the classroom door creaks open and the Principal walks in. He whispers something to Ms. Blake before taking his leave and then Ms. Blake calls Scott up to the front before walking him outside. Avery can't help but snicker to herself and wonder what Scott must have done so early in the school year to already be singled out.

Ms. Blake then reenters without Scott and sits back down at her desk. Right when Avery is about to dive back into her work, she hears her brother call out to Lydia. She tries to hear their conversation without being obvious about it but all she gets is something about a bite, a dog, and a designer handbag. Not thinking much about it, Avery tunes them out and continues on with her work.

_WHACK!_

Avery jumps in her seat, as does almost everyone else in the classroom, and looks towards the window where the sound came from and where the window closest to Lydia had a splatter of blood on the outside pane. Lydia shares a frightened look with Avery before turning to look at Stiles. Avery watches on in confusion as Ms. Blake makes her way towards the windows and peers outside.

Seconds later, the sound of birds cawing echo throughout the class and Ms. Blake stares confusedly out at her students. Everyone soon catches on, all of them now looking out towards the windows where they see a swarm of black specks flying towards the school. A crow suddenly slams into the window in front of Ms. Blake, cracking it in the process and causes the teacher to jump back in fright. More crows slam into the rest of the windows, each window cracking more and more until the windows finally give way. As the birds swarm inside the classroom, Avery scrambles out of her seat and ducks beneath her desk.

"Get down! Everyone!" Ms. Blake yells at them as the crows start to attack the students.

Some students who weren't smart enough to duck and cover are being pecked by the vicious birds, screams echoing around the classroom. Avery watches on- terrified- and sees as Stiles pushes around desks to get to Lydia and cover her up.

"Get down! Get down! Get down!" Ms. Blake continues to scream as she tries protecting a few students all on her own.

A bird finds Avery, pecking at her exposed arms before she slaps it away. She sees birds attacking her brother but he easily swats them away and seconds later, it's all over. Some birds just drop while a couple escape through the windows.

Avery slowly stands, watching as feathers and papers litter the classroom floor. Her heart is racing and her mind is reeling. This bird attack was  _not_  normal. As she takes in everyone's frightened demeanor, she quickly digs out her phone from her pocket but before she can even shoot off a text, Stiles is by her side.

"You're bleeding." He frowns. "Here, let me-"

"I'm fine." Avery pulls her arm away from his inspection. "It's just a scratch. Don't worry about me, just get the paramedics here or something. Others are injured worse."

Stiles holds up his hands in surrender, taking a step back as Avery's hands tremble. "Dad's on his way. He just texted me asking if we were okay. I said yes but I'm not so sure any-"

"I'm fine." Avery repeats with a sigh, steeling herself. She's dealt with far worse so why was she freaking out now? "That was just very.. unexpected." She huffs a laugh though it comes off far more sarcastic than she meant it to be.

Stiles backs off after that though he doesn't take his eye off of Avery as she sits atop a desk one away from him and busies herself with her phone. By the time the paramedics and her Dad get there, Avery is back to herself and Stiles lets it slide. Especially when he hears her hide a snort when he plucks a feather out of their teacher's hair.

She hears Allison speaking with, who she assumes is Allison's dad, and watches as her own Dad intervenes asking for any insight. There was talk about animal behavior and talk of experienced hunters. Mr. Argent spares a glance at Stiles before looking at his daughter and Avery doesn't miss the way they communicate with their eyes.

Something was definitely up.

When Stiles glares and makes a face at the back of their Dad's head, Avery grabs him by the ear and drags him aside. "What the hell is going on?!" She mutters hotly.

"I- I don't know.. what are you talking about?" He stammers.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about." Avery scoffs. "You and the Argents know something but you're keeping quiet. Why is that?"

"There's nothing-"

"Don't lie to me." Avery crosses her arms, glaring at him.

Stiles looks around to make sure no-one is looking at them and when they aren't, he sighs. "Look, we're taking care of it, okay? There's no need to worry."

Avery's features soften at his answer. "What's going on, Stiles?"

"I don't know." He mumbles. "But when we figure it out, we'll stop it. I-It's hard to explain."

"Will you at least try?" Avery pleads.

"You'll freak out." Stiles caves, trying one last attempt to throw off his sister. "You won't believe me and then you'll get angry at me because you'll think I'm trying to throw you off."

"No I won't."

"Just like you didn't freak out with the birds moments ago?" He challenges.

"That's.. that was different." Avery frowns. Deciding to put herself out there, she speaks softly in hopes of no-one else hearing and hoping her gut instinct isn't wrong. "I-.. I thought I finally got away from all of this." She tells him. "But from the looks of it, it either followed me or Beacon Hills was already all sorts of crazy."

When she finally looks up at her brother, Stiles is gaping at her. "Y-you know?! About the super-"

"Supernatural?" Avery feebly grins. "Yeah, I know. Have known since I was fourteen."

"B-but how?"

Avery shakes her head then. "That's a story for another time when there isn't a crowd of kids and police officers hanging around."

Stiles blinks rapidly before looking around them and registering their surroundings. "Right." He sighs before grabbing her by the wrist and leading her out the classroom door undetected. Avery thought he was going to ask for her story but is surprised when he pulls out his phone and immediately calls Scott.

"We got a serious problem at school." He immediately shoots off. "Ms. Blake's class.." From the scowl on his face, Avery guesses that Scott cut him off. "..uh, well, nope. Pretty sure this qualifies for immediate discussion." His eyes dart to her, holding her gaze before darting away. "Derek's house? What.. what the hell are you doing- _UGH_! He hung up on me."

Avery bites her bottom lip to keep from laughing at him. "So, Derek's house, huh? We skipping on the first day already?"

"Yep." Stiles glances up and down the empty hallways. "Besides, it's only one class. Now hurry up before Dad realizes we're missing."

..

..

The moment Stiles parks and glances over at his sister, he finds her frowning. When asked what was wrong, Avery whines about falling through rotted flooring and tells Stiles that he owes her a pair of new shoes if she ruined hers here. By the time they make it to the porch, Scott is swinging the front door open.

"Avery?! What are you- what is she doing here?" He directs the question to Stiles with wide-eyes.

"Relax." Stiles waves him off. "She's known about the supernatural since fourteen. She'll keep quiet."

Scott relaxes some but he still didn't seem relaxed enough. "So she knows about werewolves?"

"Oohh, who's the werewolf?" Avery's eyes lit up.

"Scott."

"I thought you said she knew?!" Scott accuses Stiles when he sees Avery glancing curiously at him.

"Cool." Avery smirks. "So what is it we're doing at Derek's house? And who is Derek? We're not going to get arrested for trespassing are we? Because I seriously doubt the watery eyes and the trembling bottom lip can get me out of that."

"I knew it! Evil." Stiles hisses at her before laughing. "Nah, I'm pretty sure the alpha's inside. Let's get introductions over with."

Scott hangs his head, knowing full well that Derek heard them talking. He leads the way inside towards a room in the back, and sure enough, Derek is glaring at all of them when they enter. "Who are you and what are you doing in my territory?" He says as soon as he and Avery lock gazes.

"Avery Stilinski." She honestly answers and smirks when he sees his eyes subtly widen. "Long lost twin of Stiles. Who are you and how did my brother get involved with a wolf pack?"

"You talk as if you're brother isn't a werewolf. How are you so sure he isn't part of this pack?"

Avery snorts at that. "Look at him." She shrugs. "No offense." She adds when Stiles squawks. "There's no way he's a wolf and that accident prone."

Scott nervously chuckles as he takes a seat in a beaten up lawn chair and Derek's lip twitch in amusement before he schools his features to be threatening again. "So you know about the supernatural. How do I know you won't go blabbing our secrets? We're no-one to you."

"Stiles is loyal to the both of you and I'm loyal to my twin. Trust me, you have nothing to worry about with me."

Derek hears what she is saying but he has his hearing trained on her heartbeat. It didn't skip one beat.

With a quick nod of his head, Stiles sighs a breath of relief. "Okay, so the birds-"

"Can be discussed later." Derek cuts him off. "Right now, Scott called in his favor to show him how to make his tattoo permanent."

"You got a tattoo?!" Avery suddenly whirls on Scott. "But Stiles said you chickened out."

"I didn't chicken out." Scott scowls. "I healed. But Derek is a werewolf and he has a tattoo so he's going to show me how to make it that the tattoo shows."

"Oh. Right. Carry on." Avery smiles as she walks to stand behind Scott, Stiles following behind her as Derek takes a seat on a crate in front of Scott.

Scott strips out of his outer shirt, leaving him in a gray muscle t-shirt and props up his arm. After gesturing to the area on his arm where the tattoo is supposed to be, Derek nods. He blinks once and when he opens his eyes, his eyes are red.

Avery stumbles back, her racing heart catching the two werewolves' attention.

"Avery? What's-"

"What is he?" Avery cuts off Scott, pointing at Derek.

The three guys all share confused looks, Derek's eyes still red as he follows Avery's every move. "He's a werewolf." Stiles reaches out to steady her. "We just got done talking about it."

"No.. no." She takes another step back. "I- I'm friends with wolves. I've fought with wolves. He is no wolf." She points at Derek.

"Yes, I am." Derek grunts, letting more of his wolf features bleed to the surface.

Avery's eyes go wide, mouth dropping open as she watches Derek transform halfway. Derek stands and tenses when he sees that Avery seems to be remembering something as she stares at nothing in particular, her eyes darting back and forth. In the following moment, Avery hardens herself and brings herself to stand tall. Lips thinned in a tight line, she reaches for her phone only to have it snatched out of her hand by a growling Derek.

"I thought you said we could trust you!" He says around a mouthful of sharp teeth.

"You can." Avery grits out. "I need to make a call, though. Put it on speaker if you don't trust me. Press and hold two, and let me talk. Not one of you is to say a word."

Derek holds Avery's gaze, Scott and Stiles watching on as the alpha did as he was told after a few tense seconds. He speed-dialed number two like Avery said until the screen says  _calling Elijah_ before quickly switching it over to speaker-phone. He holds the phone out in front of him, letting Avery scoot closer but keeps the phone with him, ready to end the call should she scream bloody murder.

The phone rings three times before a heavily British accented voice answers.  _"Shouldn't you be in class, darling?"_

"Why didn't you tell me?" Avery seethes.

Elijah definitely picks up on her tone.  _"I'm not sure what you're talking about. Be specific, Avery. We taught you better than that."_

"There are two different breeds of werewolves, Elijah. Why am I only finding this out now?"

Apparently there being two different breeds is news to the Beacon Hills gang as well if their wide eyes and gaping mouths are anything to go by. After a beat of silence, Elijah finally speaks.  _"Because the Lycans you are talking about usually stay either on the West Coast or up North. Living in New Orleans, you didn't need to worry about that."_

Avery wanted to face-palm. "And where did I move to, ol' wise one?"

" _To California."_

"That resides on.." Avery sighs.

" _..the West Coast."_ Elijah realizes.  _"Princess, I am so sorry. Do you need someone to go and pick you up?"_

"No." Avery mumbles as the fight drains from her. "My brother's mixed in with all this. Looks like I didn't get to have that normal life after all."

There is another beat of silence before Elijah's voice comes back on.  _"What do you need?"_

"All the information on Lycans emailed to me. No questions asked about any weapons or materials that get charged to your account, and for Nik to not know that I am in league with this life again. I don't need him ripping out any hearts or playing soccer with anyone's head."

" _Very well. Keep me updated."_

"Will do. Goodbye, Elijah."

" _Goodbye, Avery."_

Derek ends the call with a blank expression but as soon as she has her phone back in her possession, Stiles explodes. "What the hell was that all about?!"

"Later." Avery tells him. "I'll explain everything later. Right now, we're here for Scott and his tattoo."

Stiles pants heavily, ready to not drop the topic of discussion but Derek apparently is. "Tonight, you tell us everything."

"Everything." Avery agrees. "But it might have to wait until tomorrow after school. I'm pretty sure Dad's going to keep an eye on us tonight after what happened today."

Derek narrows his gaze on her before nodding. "Fine."

That was that and the moment Derek starts talking about tattoos again and the overwhelming pain it was going to cause, Avery couldn't help but snicker at Stiles' discomfort. She also couldn't hold back the laugh when a blow torch was presented and Stiles tried to make a clean getaway.

She ended up having to help Stiles hold down Scott while Derek burned Scott's flesh away so that the tattoo would be visible. After the agonizing minutes of Scott growling and snarling in pain, all went quiet when he eventually blacked out.

When Scott finally wakes up, he's like a kid in a candy store when he realizes the two black bands on his arm are visible. "It worked."

"Well, that's pretty damn permanent now." Stiles says as Scott stands and they start to walk out of the room. Avery follows behind them as Derek busies himself with something else.

"Yeah." Scott sighs. "Kind of needed something permanent. Everything's that's happened to us, everything just changes so fast. Everything's so, uh,  _ephemeral_."

Avery listens to him talking, wondering just what the hell it was they've been through as Stiles nods along and makes a face at Scott. "Studying for the PSATs?"

"Yep."

"Nice."

Avery snorts at them in amusement, shaking her head at them as she watches her step. Scott opens the front door, ready to walk out when something catches his attention. He stares at the door, eyes darting all over it as Stiles and Avery watch him. "You painted the door. Why'd you paint the door?"

Everyone turns to Derek who is staring at them and that is the first time Avery sees a body laying on a table covered by a sheet. Before she could ask what was going on, Derek cuts her off. "Go home, Scott."

The trio ignore Derek, all three of them looking back towards the door as Scott runs his fingers over the red paint. "And why only one side?" He flicks his hand out and Avery is surprised to see a set of claws click out.

Scott runs one claw down the door, peeling away the paint and Derek shuffles forward. "Scott!"

Scott ignores him yet again, Avery's eyes widening when Scott claws furiously at the door until a symbol painted in black appears beneath the red that almost looks like a warning.

"The birds at school a-and the deer last night. Just like the night I got trampled by the deer when I got bit by the alpha." Scott realizes. "How many are there?" Scott asks Derek- Stiles and Avery giving the alpha their attention.

"A pack of them." He admits. "An alpha pack."

"All of them?" Stiles asks. "How does that even work?"

"I hear there's some kind of a leader. He's called Deucalion. We know they have Boyd and Erica. Peter, Isaac," He glances to the room where the body is and Avery realizes that the body is that of the guy she bumped into. Whether he was dead or alive, she doesn't know. "-and I have been looking for them for the last four months."

"So you find them." Scott nods and takes a step forward. "How do you deal with an alpha pack?"

"With all the help I can get." Derek honestly replies. Stiles and Scott share a look as if saying  _they're in_ when Derek looks to Avery.

Before Avery can pledge her help, because there's no way she was letting Stiles in without stepping up herself, a tired voice has them turning to it's source. "Where is she?" Isaac is sitting up, bare-chested and sheet pooling at his waist. "Where's the girl?"

"What girl?" Derek demands.

Everyone tenses as Isaac stares at them, his eyes darting all over the place. Realizing that something seriously wrong was going on, Avery groans. "Fuck my life, dude."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. One episode plus some fit into one chapter :) I'll try my best to keep each episode in one chapter. And now I'm going to go sleep and hide because I'm scared of everyone's reaction on how I write an episode into a chapter. I'm sorry if it sucks!
> 
> Next, we'll get an explanation out of Avery on her knowledge about the supernatural before we move on to "Chaos Rising". I hope my following along with the episodes makes sense and isn't confusing.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, so I finally came up with an update schedule. From now on, updates will only take place on Sundays! Only updating on Sundays will drag the portion of 3A 'til the beginning of December and then from there, the story will go on a short hiatus until 3B premieres. Until then, please enjoy what I have planned so far :D
> 
> Check [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/second_chances_we_might_fall/set?id=95416642) for Avery's morning school outfit :)

The following morning, Avery wakes up a whole hour and half earlier than what Stiles had set his alarm for. Since she had been home-schooled through JR High and the first two years of her High School career, first impressions meant everything to her. Especially since she was at public school now and kids her age were very judgmental.

She had tried to make the best impression she could on her first day but with the attack from killer birds catching her off guard and skipping her last class, she needed to redeem herself in the eyes of the students. Some of them saw her at her weakest, Stiles mostly, and she wanted to prove that she wasn't your average weak human girl. Just because she was talented in some areas, it didn't mean that her confidence was sky-high like most would expect.

So getting up at the butt crack of dawn and showering first, Avery has plans to take her motorcycle to school today. After a quick shower, she wiggled into a pair of black low-rise skinny jeans, slipped on a gray v-neck concert tee that had The Beatles on the front, and slipped her feet into black mid-calf boots that had a seemingly floral lace body. She scoured her closet for the perfect jacket and eventually pulled out her favorite leather jacket with press-studs on the collar, and three zipper pockets.

Quickly picking up her black backpack with gold-studded stars, she shoved in two spiral notebooks and a binder with a couple of pens and pencil before going to her jewelry box and slipping on a silver floral scroll thumb ring.

She quickly ties her hair back in a low ponytail before grabbing her helmet from the top shelf of her closet and set off for downstairs. Deciding to eat cold poptarts as a quick breakfast, she tosses a pack in her backpack before penning a quick note to John to tell him that she had left early to get some stuff done with her teachers- which wasn't a lie. She had to meet with her last teacher, get the slip she was supposed to turn in the day before signed by him or her, pick up her last textbook before the first bell, and finally turning in the slip to the office.

After strapping her backpack on securely and quietly walking her motorcycle out of the garage and down half the block, Avery starts it up and hops on, set on getting to school to start her day.

..

..

When Avery finally gets to school, she doesn't expect to be the only student there but she also doesn't expect to find the twin brothers- who were pretty rude to her after she apologized for running into them- already there as well. They hadn't seemed like early risers to her.

The second she pulls up right beside them, she smirks on inside of her helmet as they stare at her bike before staring at her, trying to figure out who the rider is. She parks and cuts off the engine, sliding off slowly while giving the twins her back. After pulling off the helmet and setting it atop the bike's seat, she pulls the tie out of her hair, running her fingers through to tame it and ruffling her slightly damp waves. Once she feels presentable, she turns towards the boys, snorting when they are still looking. "Stare much?" She challenges them with a raised eyebrow, strutting off before they have the chance to even utter a word.

The rest of the school day goes by smoothly. She had visited her teacher that she had missed the previous day, got her to sign the paper slip and received the assigned textbook before locking everything up in her locker, and taking the receptionist her slip. Teachers stumbled over her name when they realized that Reynolds was scratched out and Stilinski took it's place. The only two teachers that gave any sign of recognition of her name was Finstock who groaned and then eyed her critically, and Harris who sneered at her more obviously now.

Ms. Blake's class was held in the library while the windows got fixed up but that class was pretty much a free period seeing as almost everyone in that class had ditched the entire day. Stiles was a bit sore about her leaving early without telling him and Scott tried to wheedle information out of her about the supernatural realm she knew of but she easily blew him off and told him to wait.

At the end of the school day, the only motorcycles in the parking lot where Avery's and Scott's. Scott got held back in one of his classes so he told Stiles and Avery to head on out without him, that'd he meet them at their house in a few minutes. The Stilinski's easily agreed, Avery revving her engine playfully when she and Stiles were stopped at a red light. Lifting up the visor to her helmet, she caught Stiles' gaze and winked at him before shutting the visor and taking off as soon as the light turned green.

She laughed the entire way home, parking her bike in the driveway and waiting by the front door for her brother.

"Stop gloating." Stiles frowns when he finally shows up. "You had an unfair advantage. That wasn't a fair race."

"Aww." Avery coos at him. "Has anyone ever told you that you make an adorable sore loser?"

"Shutup." He grumbles as he unlocks the front door.

He and Avery drop their bags in the hallway, making their way towards the kitchen. "I'm gonna make a quick snack before Scott gets here." Avery tells him as she pulls out hot pockets. "Want any?"

"Yeah. Make me two." He answers. "I'll take our backpacks upstairs so Dad or Scott don't trip."

Avery just waves him off as she found a can of BBQ Pringles and popped the lid as their hot pockets heated up. Not even two minutes later, she hears a manly shout from upstairs and doesn't even think twice about bounding up the stairs and towards her brother's scream.

Inside her room, she finds Stiles clutching his chest against the wall and Derek sitting at her desk.

"Jesus fucking Christ." Stiles pants. "How many times have I told you that climbing through windows is a no-no. Especially my sister's window, man!"

Derek stares unamused at Stiles before letting his gaze slide over to a silent laughing Avery. "Talk. Now."

"Ease up there, big guy." Avery grins and  _wow_.She really is related to Stiles if she calls him names like her brother used to. "We're still waiting for Scott and I need to eat. I'm starving."

"Don't they feed you at school?" Derek grunts. At this, Stiles snorts and Avery turns to glare at him.

"Sure, they feed us." Avery says with a shrug. "But I wouldn't exactly call that food."

"You should've seen it." Stiles smirks. "I made her try the meatloaf-"

Avery crosses her arms over her chest. "If you can even call it that."

"-and she nearly threw up on Scott. It was the best moment of my life."

"You're an idiot." Derek shakes his head at them while Avery pouts, "Poor, Scooby."

Stiles' eyes light up. "Scooby? Did you just call Scott  _Scooby_?"

Derek groans and rolls his eyes, looking up to the heavens as if asking  _why me_? "Of course, I did." Avery laughs. "You can't tell me you haven't noticed the way he tilts his head to the side and looks at you with wide curious eyes?" Stiles takes a moment to think about it before he grinning and nodding. "Exactly, see!" Avery points out. "I'm just waiting for him to break something and say  _ruh-roh._ "

"Oh my god," Stiles laughs. "-I can totally picture that."

While Avery and Stiles laugh about Scott and his Scooby qualities, Derek listens in for Scott's arrival. Five minutes later, the alpha grunts out that Scott had finally showed and Avery hollers for him to bring up her's and Stiles' food from the microwave and counter.

When Scott enters the room, he has half a hot pocket shoved in his mouth, three on a plate and the can of Pringles tucked between his arm and body. Before Stiles can steal two hot pockets for himself, Avery slaps his hand away and offers Derek one but he mutely declines and then demands to hear her story now that Scott was there.

"Okay, okay. Hold your horses for one more minute." Avery tells him as she crouches down by her mini-fridge, pulling out a small bottle of Cran-Apple and tossing it to Stiles. Stiles takes one look at the drink before tossing it Scott seeing as he didn't like the juice the first time he tried it. Avery waves one at Derek but when all she gets is a glare, she keeps it for herself and settles down on the floor by her closet while Stiles and Scott hog the bed. "Okay, so before I tell you how I found out about everything, I need to tell you about Elijah and Nik, and how it is they became what they are today."

Stiles' head snaps up at her. "What do you mean  _what_ they are?"

Avery smirks in response and sips her juice. "No interrupting, got it?" Looking the three guys in the eye, she receives a nod from each of them. "Okay, so Nik and Elijah are the first of their kind." Stiles makes a noise in the back of his throat but shoves a handful of pringles in his mouth to keep from talking. "Elijah is last remaining Original vampire and Nik is the first Original Hybrid."

"Vampires?!" Stiles squeaks. "They're real?!"

Well, so much for no interruptions.

Derek glares at Stiles for interrupting but when Scott speaks, Derek looks to her awaiting the answer as well. "Hybrid of what?"

Avery takes a bite of her hot pocket, chewing carefully before answering. "He's half vampire, half werewolf."

"How is that pos-"

"I'm getting there." Avery cuts off her brother. "The thing you got to realize is that the Original vampires were made by a witch. The Original Witch who just so happened to be Elijah and Nik's mother." Avery takes a breath, letting that information sink in before she rehashed the Reynolds' life story. "Over a thousand years ago, Grace and Marcus Reynolds feared for their children's lives. In the village next to theirs, a pack of werewolves made themselves at home but they weren't really a threat unless it was the night of the full moon when they shifted. Elijah was the Reynolds' firstborn, then Nik, and finally Lilyana." Avery explains between bites of food. "Grace and Marcus didn't have the perfect marriage and one night, Grace strayed from her husband and slept with the alpha leader of the werewolf clan which resulted in Nik's birth."

"The hybrid." Derek realizes.

"Yes." Avery nods. "But she managed to pass off Nik as Marcus' child until Nik grew and Marcus realized Nik didn't look anything like him."

"But wouldn't they have realized when he shifted?" Scott wonders.

"I'll get to that in a bit." Avery answers. "The older Nik got, the more abusive Marcus was towards him. Elijah soon found out about his Mother's deceit but he still treated Nik like he always did. When Lilyana was born, she had everyone wrapped around her finger, especially Nik. He cared for her when his Mother had other duties and told her stories like a big brother should. On the night of her thirteenth birthday, which fell on a full moon, she convinced Nik to sneak her out of the magic protected caves to watch the wolves shift." Scott and Stiles are on the edge of the bed, soaking in the story. "He took her out just before dawn to watch them shift back into humans but he didn't count on some of them not shifting as soon as the sun rose. The wolves attacked Nik and as he fought them off, other wolves came and attacked Lilyana. They killed her."

"They don't have control?" Scott frowns. "Why did they kill her?"

By now, Avery has set aside what little food she had left and curls her knees up to her chest. "When these wolves shift, they're completely animal. It doesn't matter if he or she is your best friend. They'll kill you."

Stiles breathes in shocked awe. "Whoa."

"Yeah." His sister nods. "Anyway, when Nik carried her body back to their village, Marcus was furious when Nik told them what happened but Marcus wanted to rip apart the wolves before he moved on to Nik. He didn't even let Grace mourn the death of their daughter before he took her back to their hut and asked for a spell to be performed. He wanted to be stronger, faster, and immortal." Avery tells them. "Grace took everything he said into consideration and sought out guidance from her Goddess. She then came up with an Immortality spell but she wanted it for her husband and two boys. She didn't want to lose another child so Marcus agreed to it. The Immortality spell is a bunch of complicated sacrifices and blood spillage so I won't go over it but she managed to get Marcus, Elijah, and Nik to complete it. The thing about magic, though, is that every spell has a consequence to it. Especially if it goes against nature."

"What was the consequence?" Stiles murmurs.

"The undeniable thirst for blood." Avery reveals. "The sun was no longer their friend. They couldn't enter their neighbors home without permission. And the very beautiful flowers called Vervain that grew everywhere was now lethal to them."

"Thus creating the first vampires." Derek says.

"Yes." Avery confirms. "But now back to Scott's earlier question on why they didn't realize Nik was werewolf born before." The three boys lean forward, elbows on their knees. "These werewolves, they're born with the werewolf gene in the DNA but when they're born, the gene remains dormant until the person makes their first kill whether it's on purpose or accidental."

"Nik killed for food, didn't he?" Stiles then realizes and sits up straighter. "He triggered his werewolf gene when he first fed."

Avery smiles at her brother's quick thinking. "That he did, bro. Elijah was with Nik when it happened and he told Nik to keep quiet because he wasn't sure what their Mother or Father would do if they found out. He agreed and when they got back to their home, it was to find their Father draining their Mother dry." Scott gasps and Avery has to bite the inside of her cheek from laughing. "You see, when you're a vampire, you're emotions are heightened to an all time high. When you're happy, you're ecstatic. When you're sad, you're depressed. And when you're mad, you go into a rage. If feeling becomes too much for you, you can completely flip the switch to where you don't feel anything at all. No compassion. No remorse. Nothing."

"So Marcus flipped the switch?"

"I guess." Avery shrugs at Scott. "He had been out searching for the alpha who slept with his wife, killed him and then when he got home, they guessed he was still in a rage and took it out on his wife. Since they were all new to being vampires and hybrids, the blood lust was too much and Marcus killed his wife. Elijah and Nik witnessed her death, flew into a rage, and killed their Father. Turns out that a bite from a werewolf kills a vampire and with Nik being a hybrid, all it took was one bite and his Father died slowly and painfully."

The room falls into a silence after that as they let it sink in that another breed of werewolves were roaming around out there. That vampires existed and even a hybrid of the two species was possible.

Of course, Derek is the one to break the silence. "While that story was insightful, it still doesn't tell us how you became involved with this."

Avery snorts a laugh. "Oh, right, yeah. Okay, so fast forward to about two years ago on the night of my fourteenth birthday in Louisiana." She grins but then her grin falters a bit causing Scott and Derek's interest to be immediately piqued. "Um, Scott and Stiles know how crappy my adoptive parents were already so yeah, now you do too." Avery directs at Derek. "I scrounged up some money and went to the movies with a couple of friends. The movie we wanted to see wasn't playing until after dark so we waited it out and watched it. My friends all had rides home but I had to walk. Even though they all offered me a ride, I declined and said the fresh air would do me good." Avery's heart rate suddenly spikes and both Scott and Derek watch her with interest. "T-there was an incident. Down a dark alley that I had been dragged down." Avery's hands tremble as she averts her gaze from the three of them, trying her best to keep her heart beat down since she knows two of them could most likely hear it.

A familiar emotion for Avery starts creeping in but with the wolves and their noses, she quickly makes herself feel fear to mask it. Which isn't too hard to make herself feel since she  _is_  scared of her brother finding this out before she's ready to tell him.

"What type of incident?" Stiles mumbles.

"Just an incident, Stiles." Avery tells him, her voice wavering when her emotions get the best of her.

Derek and Scott can hear her racing heart, smell the fear she's suddenly emanating as it gets a little bit stronger but they don't press. The last thing they want is her shutting down and not volunteering any more information.

"Avery-"

"Drop it." She suddenly snaps, eyes darting up to meet Stiles. "That's another story for a very different time." She says, her eyes quickly glancing to Derek. Stiles clenches his jaw but nods nonetheless. "Anyway, I lost a lot of blood-"

"What the hell?!"

"Not now." Avery grits through clenched teeth. She waits for Stiles to sit back down before taking a deep breath and continuing. "I lost a lot of blood and was pretty much left for dead. I couldn't call out for help or anything." She admits with a defeated sigh. "I don't know how long I had been laying there but then there was suddenly two men standing above me. Elijah and Nik." She reaches for her bottle of juice and finishes off the remaining liquid. "They, uh, they were watching me as I died. I could barely hear them as they talked about how the human race disgusted them and how could someone have left a child to die like the way I was in filth. They said some other things but the next thing I know, my head's being lifted and they're asking if I want to live or die. There was a split second where I almost didn't answer because I thought  _what if_  but then something made me want to live and then all of sudden, there's a bleeding wrist being held against my mouth."

"Gross." Scott grimaces at the same time Stiles shouts, "What the fuck?!"

Derek looks wary of Avery all of sudden, especially when she laughs at their reactions as her fear slowly gives way. "Relax, will you? Vampire blood heals. Elijah healed me just enough so that I wouldn't die, promised me to keep their secret or else they'd hunt me down, and dropped me off at the nearest hospital."

"And that's how you found out you were adopted?" Stiles guesses as he recalls when Avery told him and their Dad that she found out after a certain incident involving her blood type.

"Sort of." Avery nods. "The next day, when my parents finally showed up, they had to fill out all sorts of forms and they were such bad parents, they didn't even know my information." She shakes her head in disappointment. "After that, I kept getting a weird feeling that I was being watched and a week later I found out I was right. Nik and Elijah kept an eye on me to make sure I didn't blab their secret."

"And why didn't you?" Derek asks. "You were a kid. Hell, you're still a kid. Why didn't you scream bloody murder the first chance you got?"

Avery smiles at him before her gaze locks on her carpeted floor. "They saved my life. Not once but twice."

Derek's eyebrows hitch towards his hairline. "Twice?"

"When they were making sure that I didn't talk about them, they were watching my parents as well. They didn't like how careless my parental figures were and they kind of grew attached to me. When I think about it now, I think I reminded them of their little sister. But anyway, they asked me if I wanted an out. They asked if I wanted to stay with them where I could learn about anything and everything I dreamed of so I said yes."

"And your adopted parents just let you go with two strangers?" Derek scoffs.

"Not exactly." Avery then smirks. "Vampires, they have this skill called compulsion. Once they catch your gaze, they can basically control your mind. They can plant fake memories or erase memories. They can even manipulate your dreams." She informs them. "So yeah, adoptive Mom and Dad thought Elijah and Nik were crazy when they asked if I could live with them so Nik and Elijah compelled them to believe they had never adopted me to begin with. They even made sure to plant the idea that adoption wasn't for them and sent them off to bed while they helped me pack up and move."

"Wow." Stiles chirps. "Remind me to never look a vampire in the eye."

"Whatever, you big baby. If it makes you feel better, I'll have some vervain shipped here." She grins. "Liquid vervain can keep you from being compelled and even taint your blood so you're not tasty to any of them. Just a couple drops in whatever your drinking everyday should do the trick and no, vervain isn't lethal to wolves." Scott breathes a sigh of relief and Avery snorts. "So yeah, I move in with them, they treat me like family, hire a private tutor so I can be home-schooled, and then they themselves teach me all about the supernatural. They also taught me to fight and protect myself. I'm pretty good with a crossbow, daggers, and a wooden stake."

"But you suck with a paintball gun." Scott reminds her.

"Yeah, I know." Avery frowns. "My aim with a bow is pretty damn legit but for some reason, I could never handle a gun."

"Great." Derek sighs. "Another Hunter."

Avery's head snaps up towards Derek, locking eyes with him. "I'm not a Hunter." She spat. "Hunters hunt down and kill anything and anyone who they don't classify as human. I'm a Soldier. A  _Guardian._ I fight and kill to  _protect_."

"You're a child." Derek glares right back. "You shouldn't be involved with any of this."

"Hey!" Scott intervenes before they see Avery put any of her skills to use. "I'm a child too but it didn't stop your Uncle from placing this curse on me."

Before Derek can round on Scott and get a word out, Avery surprises them all by rounding on Scott herself. "Scooby, I love you like a brother but if I hear you call it a curse ever again, I will skip pass the bitch-slap and go straight for the knockout. Do I make myself clear?"

"W-what?" Scott gapes. "But it is a-"

"No. It's not." Avery climbs to her feet, kicking off her boots since she isn't going anywhere else in them and walks towards her desk- opening up her laptop. As she types in her password to get in, she peers over her shoulder at Scott. "Shift."

"What?!"

"Shift." Avery tells him again. "Shift. Right now." Scott chances a brief look at Derek who only shrugs in response and then at Stiles who nods for him to do as he was told. Scott's face scrunches up before his sideburns sprout extra furry, his ears shift into points, his eyes glow an eerie yellow, and his teeth elongate into fangs. "Now," Avery turns back to her laptop, clicking away and typing more. "-on a scale of one to ten, how painful was that?"

"U-um, it wasn't." Scott admits around his fangs. "It just feels weird with all the bones shifting around and what not."

"Okay." Avery gestures to her laptop where a video waits to be played. "I dare you to call  _your_  Lycanthropy a curse again after seeing this."

Scott let his features slip away as he and Stiles crowd behind Derek to see the screen. Avery presses play and the image they are greeted with is a group of naked men and women tied up with chains in a barn.

"Uh, weird." Stiles mutters. "I mean, I like porn as much-"

"Shutup." Avery and Derek speak at the same time though Avery adds in a whack to the back of Stiles' head.

Stiles pouts as he rubs his head, watching the screen in silence now. The people are restless, that much is obvious, and he can see them getting jittery with every second that passes. Finally, a shout sounds through the speakers and each person in the barn has yellow glowing eyes. Agonized screams, both male and female, follow after the first shout and the group watch on in shock as every person on the screen crumples the the ground. Bones snap and shift, giving the illusion that something is crawling beneath their skin as their faces morph into that of an actual wolves face and snout. Their bodies then morph into the body of a wolf and fur sprouts all over the place.

"T-they're wolves." Stiles stammers while pointing at the screen. "All of them are wolves."

"Yep." Avery confirms as she watches the wolves snap at one another, trying in vain to get free. "If you ever run into one in the wild, it's hard to tell whether they're a regular wolf roaming around or a supernatural creature on the prowl." The wolves start to howl and Avery quickly snaps the lid shut when Derek and Scott both cringe at the sound. "Now you see why I told you that what you have is no curse. You guys," Avery smiles feebly down at Derek with awe. "-you guys are special. You aren't beholden to the moon like they are. You can shift at will at any time of the day while they have to wait for a full moon. While your kind shifts with ease, they are in agony until they complete the shift each time. Including their shift back to human."

Scott hangs his head in shame, not saying a word but Avery takes pity on him and playfully ruffles his hair. "Do you know anything else?" Derek breaks apart their little moment. "Anything that might be useful to us?"

"Everything I know is locked up in my laptop." Avery gestures to it. "I don't know anything about your kind of wolves but Elijah emailed me some stuff last night. I just haven't had time to go over it."

Derek sighs in exasperation. "Well, what are you waiting for? Bring it up."

"Excuse me, Mr. Bossy pants." Avery huffs and plants her hands on her hips. "But we have a party to get ready for."

"But that party isn't for another four hours."

"Not the point." Avery narrows her gaze at Scott. "I still have to shower and choose a decent outfit and then make sure you two are dressed appropriately."

"This is more important than a stupid party." Derek dead-pans. "It can't wait."

Avery purses her lips, taking Derek's words into consideration. While what Derek said is true, she really, really wants to go to this party with Stiles and Scott. Taking a moment to think things over, she takes out her phone and unlocks it before shoving it towards Derek.

"Put your number in." Derek cocks an eyebrow at her but takes the phone anyway, programming his number into the device. "I really hope I can trust you-"

"You can."

"-so I'm going to text you every password that is needed for my laptop and let you take it for the night. No-one else is have these passwords and no-one else is to handle the laptop. You are allowed to let any other pack member to take a look but only if you're in the same room as them so they don't mess with anything. Are we clear?"

"Crystal." Derek agrees. Avery sighs and then makes her way towards her closet, pulling out a case for her laptop so Derek could take it.

"Alright, so I expect to get this back tomorrow in the same condition I lend it to you in." She says as she stows away her precious Mac.

"You will."

For some reason, Avery takes his word for it and hands over the bag. "I'll text you the passwords in a bit. Now shoo! I have an outfit to choose."

Derek takes the carrying case with a nod, stands, and makes his way to the window. Avery laughs as he climbs out and before he drops from view, he locks gazes with her. "Uh, thanks."

"No problem."

The second Derek is gone, Avery turns to her brother and Scott who are gaping at her.

"You just.. all that information.."

Avery rolls her eyes. "Shutup, Stiles. We have a party to get ready for and I'll let you go through everything when I get it back." He snaps his mouth shut and Avery takes that chance to herd them through her bedroom door. "Now, you two, shoo. Scott, go home and shower and change into something party worthy. Stiles, same for you."

The moment the boys pass the threshold of her room, she slams the door behind them. Then walking over to her closet, she starts sorting through her clothes. "Hmm.. what to wear, what to wear."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sitting through Nik and Elijah's backstory.
> 
> Next up we have "Chaos Rising" and we get to see Heather's party, Allison finally meeting a very buzzed Avery, and yeah some other stuff as well ;)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: Oh man, have I thanked you all for reading and reviewing? If not, THANK YOU! You have no idea how hard I fought to NOT post this before today. I don't know how I'm going to hold off on the next chapter 'til Sunday once more. Haha.
> 
> Avery's party outfit can be found [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/chaos_rising_we_might_fall/set?id=96008463) and her hangover outfit can be found [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/we_might_fall_ch/set?id=96010194).

**Chaos Rising**

Avery proudly walks out in front of Stiles and Scott, her victory over her chosen outfit still making her giddy. The second she had stepped out of her room in a purple galaxy print bralet top with a front zipper, a Vera Moda highwaist white skirt with the hemline longer in the back than it was in the front, galaxy shimmer shell earrings, a silver infinity ring on her right index finger, and a pair of five inch black suede peep-toe platform heels with jeweled heels- Stiles had ordered her to march right back into her room and change.

Scott laughs at Stiles' protective instincts but Avery doesn't budge and tells him the longer he keeps them from the party, the meaner she was going to be to any girls that were looking for a hookup with him. Stiles gapes, narrows his eyes, and then demands that she stick by Scott's side the entire night. No-one was going to get handsy with his baby sister and all the skin she had on display.

..

..

They're walking down the side-walk in the next town over, towards the house that has teenagers flocking towards it.

"What?"

"What do you mean what?"

"I mean  _what_ and you know what." Stiles challenges Scott.

"What  _what_?"

Avery snorts as she looks at her phone and texts Derek the latest set of passwords and for what files they were to.

"That look you were giving."

"I didn't give a look."

"No, there was a distinct look, Scott."

"What look?"

"The look that says the last thing you feel like doing right now is going to a party!" Stiles accuses him.

"It's not that." Scott sighs. "It's just weird going to a different High School's party-"

"Oh, for the love of God!" Avery rounds on the two boys. "I'm completely new here so  _you_ have nothing to feel weird about and besides, Stiles says he went to Nursery School with her. Let them catch up while you watch me have all the drinks I'm allowed."

Stiles nods along with Avery's words. "Yeah, what she said." Stiles points at her. "Besides, she said she'd introduce us to all of her friends so tonight, no Allison and no Lydia. Tonight, we're moving on." Stiles boasts as Scott checks his phone.

"Yeah. You guys are right." Scott says before he pockets said phone.

"That's right we're right." The Stilinski twins high-five each other.

"Now before we go in-" Avery clicks over to camera mode on her own phone. "-I need a picture of us three so smile cheesy at the panda bear-"

"But my eyes-" Scott says at the last second causing Avery to freeze.

"Double kiss to the cheek?"

"Double kiss to the cheek." Scott agrees with his best friend and kisses Avery's cheek while Stiles kisses the other.

Avery laughs as she snaps the picture, turning her phone around to see the outcome and accepts it. "Right, well that's being printed and added to my door of pride at home." The boys grin as Avery turns off her phone, handing it to Scott so he could hold in his pocket for her. "Alright, so ready?"

"Ready." The boys sound in unison, following Avery as she leads the way to the front door.

She hears Scott asking if his breath smelled, her brother turning him down because he isn't about to smell his breath for him. Scott then asks for gum and again, Stiles turns him down. Right before they enter the home, she hears Scott ask just what kind of party it is before his voice got drowned out by a bunch of  _wooing_  girls.

The trio stops right inside the front door, Stiles and Scott flanking either side of Avery as they scope out the party. A second later, someone calls out to Stiles and the boy in question is pushing forward.

"Hey! There's the birthday gi-" He gets cut off as a pretty blonde eagerly presses her lips to his.

Avery's jaw drops at the sudden kiss, she turning to look at Scott only to see that he too is gaping at what just took place.

"So glad you made it." The blonde tells Stiles.

Stiles immediately replies with a, "Me too!"

"Come downstairs with me. Help me pick out a bottle of wine."

"Yes." He eagerly agrees, turning to look over his shoulder with a beaming smile as the birthday girl drags him away.

"Wow. Not even a minute in and we've already been ditched." Avery mumbles when Scott stands shoulder to shoulder with her, still in awe at how fast Stiles got hooked up.

Scott chuckles, taking a few more steps forward to the birthday girl's curvy dark-skinned girl friend. "Hey!" He happily greets.

She takes one good look at him, up and down, before mutely dissing him and walks away. Scott looks highly offended and is only brought out of this thoughts when he hears Avery laughing behind him.

"Oh. My. God." Avery wheezes. "You should see your face!"

Scott playfully huffs at her which only causes Avery to laugh even harder. By the time she finishes laughing, she catches Scott staring down at his phone that was lit up with an alert from Allison. "Oh no." She covers the phone with her hand. "No Allison, remember?" She doesn't wait for Scott to say anything before she takes his phone and slips it back in his pocket for him. "Come on. Come supervise me take a couple of shots while Stiles defiles the wine cellar. Then if Allison is still beckoning, I'll pretend to not see you call her back."

Scott's confused puppy stare morphs into one of an easy grin. "Thanks." He says and slips an arm around Avery's shoulder, making sure to glare at the guys already eyeing her up and down, and leads her to where the alcohol is.

..

..

Half an hour later, Avery is a mess of uncontrollable giggles and Scott has to keep her away from everyone. When Avery is drunk- he realizes she talks. About  _everything._ Scott had only left her alone for a minute while he went to get her a refill and when he came back, she was talking to a group of girls about how he was a werewolf and that he could howl! Given her drunken state, the other girls thought that Scott's howling was meant as something  _else_  and giggled like mad when he pulled her away from them with a blush staining his cheeks.

Avery giggles that she has to use the bathroom so Scott leads her to the bathroom. While she's inside, he checks his phone once again and finds numerous missed calls and text messages. All of them being from Allison. Without much thought, he calls her back and gives her the directions to where he is when she said she needed to talk to him in person. After hanging up, he dashes for downstairs and makes his way outside.

By the time Avery comes out from the bathroom, Scott is nowhere to be found. She searches upstairs before going back downstairs and walks through the rooms. She picks up a blue solo cup, sipping at it's contents and giggling when the clear liquid tingles the back of her throat.

She is totally going to regret this when she has to wake up for school tomorrow.

As she continues her search for Scott, the dark-skinned girl who had dissed Scott earlier catches her attention and tells her that she had seen her date go outside. Avery doesn't bother to correct the girl who introduces herself as Danielle, and gives Danielle her thanks before going in search for Scott outside. Sure enough, Scott is right outside standing with Lydia and Allison who are baring their forearms to him.

"Scooby!" She cheers when she finds him, stumbling in her heels. Scott whirls around, snorting as she trips out the front door. "I found you! You weren't supposed to leave me alone." She pouts at him.

Allison and Lydia immediately pull their arms back to themselves, lowering their sleeves, and crossing their arms. "Sorry, Avs. Something kind of came up." He tells her while gesturing to Allison and Lydia over his shoulder.

Allison glances between the two of them, frowning a bit as she takes a step back. "Oh. I didn't realize you were on a date." She mumbles. "W-we can talk later." She starts to pull Lydia away but Lydia only laughs as Scott whirls around with wide eyes.

"No! I-I'm not. She's n-not." Scott stammers.

"I'm not his date." Avery chirps as she stands side-by-side with Scott. "No way. He's totally still into you.. and I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to say that but oh well." Avery shrugs with a wide grin. "So nice to finally meet you. I was going to introduce myself the first day of school but then Ms. B strutted her sexy ass inside and I lost my train of thought."

Lydia raises an eyebrow at the comment about their teacher and Allison bites her bottom lip to keep from laughing. "Um, who are you?" She asks at the same time Lydia laughs, "Is she drunk?!"

"Very." Scott groans. "Stiles is gonna kill me."

Lydia laughs again, slyly taking Avery's cup from her and tossing out it's contents. "Avery Stilinski at your service." She greets Allison. "Long story very short. Mom and Dad gave me up at birth. I'm Stiles' twin."

Allison gapes, looking to Scott who nods his confirmation. "Oh. Wow. Well, hi."

"Hello." Avery giggles. "Scooby, can I have my phone? I need a picture with Lydia for my door."

Scott hands over her phone, Lydia having to wrap an arm around the drunk girl's waist. "Yeah, lets go take that picture while Scott and Allison  _talk._ Cute top, by the way. You need to show me where you shop."

"Mhm. I will." Avery tells her quickly. "Now shush and say cheese!" Avery snaps the picture, Lydia having smiled just in time and peers over to see the outcome with her friend. "Oh, perfect!" Avery coos. "At least you don't have freaky eyes like Scott."

Allison stops talking, Lydia freezing as they both turn to look at Scott. "Yeah, about that." He rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. "She knows. She was kind of, raised for two years by vampires."

"What?"

"What?!" Lydia screeches.

"Oh, yeah." Avery grins over towards Lydia. "You can know now. I totally know about the supernatural beings. Even more than Derek. You know him, right? Tall, broody, and quite good-looking?" Scott groans and grimaces at the mention of Derek being good-looking. "Well, yeah, he's not my type but he seems somewhat decent. Anyway, yeah, vampires. They're real."

"She's totally Stiles' twin." Allison muses.

"She's not normally like this." Scott says. "I think it's just all the alcohol right now. She doesn't usually babble."

"..and I'm totally vampire royalty down in New Orleans. I'm a Princess." She beams at Lydia- Scott and Allison not having heard the first part of her ramblings. "No vampire or werewolf is allowed to touch me. Hell, they're even scared to look at me wrong." She snorts. "I dated this one guy, vampire dickbag was what he was, and people came to Elijah and Nik telling them that my boyfriend was only with me because he wanted bragging rights of bagging the Princess."

"Ouch." Scott grimaces.

"I know, right?" She sighs in exasperation. "Well, Nik and Elijah weren't happy about it so while Elijah ripped out the dude's heart, Nik tore off his head and served it to me on a silver platter. After that, we partied."

Allison gasps in shock. "And you were okay with that?"

"I was fifteen and heartbroken." Avery shrugs. "And besides, it's not like he was a human."

"I have a feeling there are a bunch more stories that we haven't heard yet." Lydia mumbles in shock.

"Mhm. Don't even get me started on Mardi Gras!" Avery giggles.

Lord help them, Avery was a giggly and talkative drunk.

* * *

The following morning, Stiles has one hell of a time keeping his still hungover sister from getting herself in trouble. He manages to shove her into a cold shower, keeping her screeching down to a minimum as to not wake their Dad, and blindly shoves her back into her room to get dressed. She groans and moans the entire time, reappearing downstairs in a knitted black and gray striped jumper, denim shorts, a pair of black sneakers, and black retro aviators shielding her eyes with her wild waves hiding the rest of her face.

He manages to herd her to his jeep just as their Dad was waking up and got them to school the earliest he's ever been. Of course by the time they get there, Allison and Lydia are already there, seated in Lydia's car just on the other side of the parking lot. Once spotted, the girls get out and walk over to the Jeep with bags in hand.

"One hangover blueberry muffin and black coffee to get you through the day." Lydia proudly smiles as she shoves both things in Avery's hands. "The breading should absorb any alcohol you have left in your system."

Avery, who had been scowling at the offending muffin, perks up at the fact and eagerly bites into her antidote.

Morning classes are a bore and it takes everything in Avery's being to not puke. Her head pounded and it was only made worse by Finstock's eagerness of whatever risk and reward game he had them playing. Harris was a dick as usual, even more so when he was the only one to actually figure out what was wrong with her. Classes were passing by slowly and Avery wanted to die. In between classes, Scott informs everyone that they were skipping lunch and meeting Derek in one of the empty classrooms. Avery didn't care, the thought of food still making her nauseous so by the time lunch rolls around, Avery finds herself pushing desks together to lay atop them and rests her head in Stiles' lap as he takes a seat next to her atop another desk.

Allison and Lydia come in at the same time and Scott walks in with Derek.

"What's wrong with her?" Derek asks when he sets his gaze on Avery.

"I shouldn't have gone to that party." Avery whines. "And by the way," She quickly sits up, pulling off her glasses which is a bad idea because the room starts to tilt as she tries her best to glare at Lydia. "-your muffin sucked! I still feel gross and think I'm going to puke up my guts! And what the hell were you serving me last night?!" Avery turns her glare on Scott.

Lydia, Allison, and Stiles hide their amused snickers while Derek rolls his eyes at her. "That's what you get. Drink a seven-up and eat crackers. It'll help." He grunts though Avery swears she saw him quickly smirk before getting serious again. "Now, what exactly am I here for?"

Derek turns to Scott who then gestures for Lydia and Allison to step forward. Both girls immediately sober up from the giggles, turning stoic and baring their inner forearms and wrist to Derek and showing him their matching bruises.

"I don't see anything." Derek sighs, arms crossed over his chest.

"Look again." Scott tells him.

"How is a bruise going to tell me where Boyd and Erica are?"

Allison stares unimpressed at Derek and Derek returns the stare. "It's the same on both sides. Exactly the same." Scott replies.

"It's nothing." Derek dead-pans.

Avery just watches on in confusion as the tension grows between Allison and Derek.

"Pareidolia." Lydia suddenly chirps. "Seeing patterns that aren't there." She tells them when she realizes no-one knows what she's saying. "It's a subset of apophenia."

"They're trying to help." Scott attempts one last time.

"These two?" Derek scoffs, looking towards Allison and Lydia. Pointing to Lydia he says, "This one who used me to resurrect my psychotic Uncle- thank you." His arms are crossed back over his chest as he turns his attention to Allison now. "And this one who shot about thirty arrows into me and my pack."

Only Stiles, Scott, and Derek hear Avery's sharp intake of breath- the two wolves glancing at her from their peripheral vision to see her glare at Allison, her jaw clenching in anger. Stiles subtly pulls her back when she leans forward, the wolves hearing him tell her to  _relax_ , that she  _didn't know the whole story_. When Avery finally does relax, Stiles steps in when Allison only glares harder at Derek. "Okay, alright, now come on." Stiles catches everyone's attention. "No-one died, alright. Look, there may have been a little maiming, okay? A little mangling but no death. That's what I call an important distinction."

Derek chances a glance at Stiles and Allison chooses that moment to speak for the first time. "My mother died."

"Oh hell." Avery groans and slips her glasses back on, choosing to lay down and forget all the drama for now.

"Your family's little honor code killed your mother. Not me." Derek tells her bluntly.

"Hunters." Avery breathes. "I swear."

"A girl's looking for Scott. I'm here to help him, not you." Allison shakes her head at Derek.

Derek shrugs. "Wanna help? Find something real." And with that, Avery watches as Derek walks away only to be stopped by Scott at the door where they continue to have a hushed conversation.

After their meeting with Derek, Lydia had stormed into the teacher's lounge and found Avery some crackers when she continued to complain and Scott bought her a seven-up from the machines to make up for letting her drink so much the previous night.

The last two classes pass with ease after her stomach has settled, she managing to get through her classes with a smile only to be brought back down when Stiles and Scott seek her out. Stiles tells her that their Dad had showed up to school because Heather, the birthday girl from the night before, went missing. After they had a moment to mope, Scott then fills her in on Stiles' embarrassing moment when a condom flew out of his pocket and Finstock congratulated him in front of everyone.

Avery had laughed but the boys could tell it was a bit forced. Call it twin intuition or whatever but Stiles just knew his twin was still feeling a bit worn out.

Then there had been the whole ordeal when Avery sat in the library with Allison and Lydia during their last class period while Allison obsessed over their bruises. While Avery was working on whatever work she had, Lydia interrupted their peace when she exclaimed  _she wanted one_ with  _one_  being one of the identical twins. When Allison laughed and asked which one, Lydia then informed them that she obviously wanted the straight one. When both Allison and Avery had turned to see what she was talking about, one of the brothers was smiling fondly at Danny, who apparently everyone had loved.

Stiles had still been obsessing over Heather's disappearance after their last class and even came up with a theory that one of the alphas- the ones they had been neglecting to look in to- must have kidnapped her to turn her. As Avery mulled over the idea, Scott and Stiles wondering what a pack of alphas would even want with a newly turned beta. It was then that Avery found out that Heather's mom and their Mom had been best friends so that's why Stiles had been close with Heather, and why he was so freaked over her disappearance and needed to know where their lair was so he could rescue his friend.

Scott then proclaimed that they needed Isaac to remember because apparently Isaac had found said lair but the alphas had found him and beat the living hell out of him, taking some of his memories in the process. Stiles didn't think it would work because Derek's uncle, Peter, had tried but it didn't work out so well. They needed more information and Scott knew who to go to.

Dr. Deaton.

..

..

Hours later, after making sure their Dad was fed for the night, Stiles and Avery leave to pick up Scott and head over to the Veterinary Clinic. Apparently, this Doctor Deaton was an advisor of sorts for werewolves and Avery was anxious to meet him and see him work his plan of making Isaac remember. Although, the thought of dunking Isaac into a tub filled with ice water to keep him under hypnosis was making her anxious for the beta wolf.

When they finally show up to the clinic, Deaton is visibly curious as to who and why they brought Avery along and after Stiles fills him in, he awes and then gets down to business.

While Scott and Stiles start to fill up the tub, Avery excuses herself and says she'll be in the front waiting for Derek and Isaac to show. No-one pays her any mind and that's how Avery finds herself sitting in the waiting room alone with Isaac when they finally show up and while everyone else is in the back room dumping bag after bag of ice into a tub.

"So," Isaac drawls and catches Avery's attention. "You and Stilinski or you and McCall?"

"Excuse me?" Avery squeaks.

"The first time I saw you," Isaac then explains, squinting his eyes as if recalling the memory. "-you were with Stiles and Scott, and now you're here with the both of them but you, uh, you reek of that Stilinski kid."

"Oh." Avery's cheeks warm at his insinuation before she wrinkles her nose at him. "No. I, uh, I  _reek_ like that _Stilinski kid_ because  _I am_ a Stilinski kid. We live together." She tells him with a chuckle. "Stiles is my twin." Isaac opens his mouth but Avery quickly cuts him of. "It really is a long story and I'm sure Derek will fill you in some other day."

Now it's Isaac's turn to flush, snapping his mouth shut before opening it once again. "Oh. So McCall then?"

Avery chuckles at him, angling her body as to give him her full attention and crossing one leg over the other. "No. Scott's still very much in love with Allison and besides, he's totally not my type." She flashes him a smile. Isaac's eyebrows raise causing Avery to giggle at him before he relaxes, sitting back in his chair. "I'm Avery, by the way. Just thought I'd let you know since we didn't get introduce ourselves the first night we met."

"Right.." Isaac slowly smiles at her. "I, um, I think that's actually the night the alphas took my memories so everything's kind of hazy. When I saw you earlier, I got a flash of a memory from that night where you're standing with Stiles and Scott but that's it."

Avery's grin falters. "Oh. Well, we kind of bumped into each other and you spilled my milkshake. So I think it's safe to say you owe me a milkshake."

"Really now?" Isaac cocks an eyebrow at Avery, a smug smirk slowly tilting the corner of his lips upward.

Avery shakes with silent laughter, silence falling between the two when a throat clears. "Ahem." Deaton smiles at the both of them before giving his attention to Isaac. "We're ready for you."

Avery and Isaac both stand, Avery offering him a sympathetic smile before going in first. She walks into the back room just in time to see Stiles, Scott, and Derek empty out the last few bags of ice and stands next to the tub, dipping a finger in. The coldness of the water is so intense that she hisses and pulls her hand back, pulling her hands up into the sleeves of her jumper and crossing her arms as she glares at the water for being so cold.

Isaac stops Deaton by the door, asking if he would be okay if he went through with this and the kind Doctor assures him he would. They both walk further into the room when Isaac asks if it was like being hypnotized.

"Exactly." Deaton confirms as Isaac takes a stance right next to Avery. "You'll be half transformed. It'll let us access your subconscious mind."

Isaac kneels, resting his arms on the side of the tub and Avery scurries off towards her brother when she sees him looking through drawers. "What are you doing? She whispers.

"Look." Stiles gestures to the drawer where rubber gloves reside. He pulls one out, slipping it over his hand only to find out that it went all the way up to his elbow. Avery rolls her eyes at him, grinning as she picks one up as well, holding it by the opening and blowing air into it. Stiles snaps the glove on his arm, gaining everyone's attention and when they blankly get stared at, Stiles loses his grin. "What?"

Derek just stares at Stiles before moving his gaze to Avery who has a half blown up glove at her mouth, raising both his eyebrows at them as if asking  _really?_ And as Stiles angrily tears his glove off, Avery sheepishly let the air out of hers and places it back on the table.

Scott and Derek both roll their eyes but Isaac grins at Avery as she walks back towards the tub, Stiles in tow, and stands as everyone gets back to business.

"Look, if it feels too risky, you don't have to do it." Derek tells his beta and Avery slightly warms up to Derek for that comment.

Without answering, Isaac tears his shirt over his head and the minute his bare chest is exposed, Avery sucks in her breath and averts her gaze. Derek notices, biting back a smirk as Avery glares at him until he looks away. Isaac tosses his shirt on a table behind him as he exhales deeply and steps into the tub. Instantaneously, he feels the effects of the ice bath and starts breathing harshly. As he settles himself into the tub, Scott shakes off his jacket and pushes up the sleeves to his shirt.

Derek and Scott both place a hand on Isaac's shoulder, waiting for the wolf to catch his breath before pulling him back to lay down and pushing him beneath the surface. Avery chews on her bottom lip as the seconds tick by- Deaton, Stiles, and herself watching on and soon enough, Isaac pushes to the surface roaring and snarling with glowing yellow eyes and a mouth full of fangs. Avery immediately pushes up her sleeves, her and Stiles lunging forward to hold Isaac's legs down when Scott and Derek struggle with his upper body.

"Get him back under." Deaton instructs them. Isaac is pushed back beneath the surface and Avery doesn't like the way they are practically drowning him. "Hold him!" Deaton says when Isaac breaks the surface again.

"We're trying!" Derek hollers back.

Isaac is pushed back under where he struggles some more but this time, they are able to hold him. The second he stops struggling, Avery jumps back soaking wet, eyes wide, and thinking that she just helped them kill someone as everyone else slowly backs off. The second Isaac's face slowly rises to the surface and he releases a tiny gasp, Avery sighs in relief.

"Now remember," Deaton whispers to them all. "-only I talk to him. Too many voices will confuse him and draw him out." Everyone agrees and Deaton leans closer to Isaac who looks as if he were sleeping in the water. "Isaac? Can you hear me?"

He nods before saying, "Yes. I can hear you."

Scott looks shocked that it actually worked, looking at everyone in their group before looking back down at Isaac. "This is Doctor Deaton. I'd like to ask you a few questions. Is that alright?"

Once again, Isaac says, "Yes."

"I wanna ask you about the night you found Erica and Boyd?" Lighting suddenly flashes outside and thunder rumbles. Avery's eyes widen and she takes a step closer to her brother. While she had seen a lot of things in the last couple of years, she had yet to see something like this. "I want you to remember it for me in as vivid detail as possible. Like you're actually there again."

Isaac starts to shake his head. "N-no. I don't wanna do that. I don't wanna.. I don't wanna do that!" He starts struggling once more as he grips the sides of the tub forcing Scott and Derek to hold him down again.

"Just relax." Deaton tries to soothe him at the exact moment the lights start to flicker. "They're just memories. You can't be hurt by them again."

"I don't wanna do that." Avery and Stiles move forward to hold his legs again. "I don't wanna do that." Isaac's voice trembles as his teeth chatter from the cold.

"It's alright." Deaton says. "Relax. Relax." Isaac starts to calm again, going still in the water. "Good. Now let's go back to that night.. to the place where you found Erica and Boyd. Can you tell me what you see? Is there some kind of building? House?"

"It's, uh, it's not a house." Isaac answers him. "It's stone." Derek looks relieved to be getting answers. "Like marble."

"That's perfect." Deaton assures him. "Can you give me any other descriptors?"

"It's dusty." Isaac sighs. "I-It's empty."

"Like an abandoned building?" Deaton guesses. Isaac's head twitches and the lights and x-ray machines start to flicker. "Isaac?"

"Someone's her-" Isaac blindly reaches up, grabbing Scott's arm and gripping tight. "Someone's here!" He wheezes.

"Isaac, relax." Deaton tells him when everyone starts to freak out and look around.

"N-n-no, no, no. They see me. They see me!" He yells and starts to thrash around.

Avery really freaks now, letting go of his legs and rushing towards the side of the tub where his head keeps going under water. No-one says anything as Deaton tries to calm him down and Avery places her hands beneath his head to keep his head above water.

Isaac stills.

"Now tells us what you see. Tell us everything."

Isaac's eyes flicker back and forth behind his eyelids as he recalls what he saw. "I hear him." His eyes slowly open, staring at nothing. "He's talking about the full moon. About being out of control when the moon rises."

"Is he talking to Erica?" Deaton asks.

"I think so. I-I can't-" His bottom lip trembles. "I can't see her. I- I can't- I can't see either of them."

"Can you hear anything else?"

"They're worried." Isaac realizes. "They're worried what they'll do during the moon." Avery sharply inhales, suddenly realizing what was happening. After all, a wolf was a wolf no matter what species and if she was correct, it wasn't going to be pretty. "Th- they're worried that they're going to hurt each other." And yep. That's what she expected too.

Derek shakes his head at the realization. "If they're locked in together during the full moon, they're going to tear each other apart."

"Isaac." Deaton's voice is commanding. "We need to find them right now. Can you see them?"

"No."

"Do you know what kind of room it is? Is there any kind of a marker? A number on a door? A sign?"

Isaac abruptly sits up, splashing water all over everyone. "They're here." He whispers causing everyone to look around. "They're here. They're here." His voice squeaks as he sinks back into the water. Deaton tries to assure him that no-one is there but Isaac is relentless. "They see me. They found me! They're here."

"This isn't working." Derek looks frantic now. Looking down, he stares at the beta wolf. "Isaac, where are you?"

Avery falls forward to keep the beta's head up above water as Isaac and Derek shout at each other. Derek wants to know where he's at and Isaac is screaming that they've found him. Deaton and Scott are shouting at Derek that he's confusing Isaac, and Stiles and Avery share a helpless look with each other. There's a bunch of screaming and shouting, rambling about a logo before Isaac sits up shouting, "It's a vault! I saw it! I saw the name." Everyone remains quiet as Isaac stares up at everyone before standing up and climbing out of the tub. Deaton is there with a large towel, wrapping it around the soaking and trembling wolf. "It's uh, B-Beacon Hills First National Bank." He tells them. "It's a-an abandoned bank and t-they're keeping them locked inside. Inside the vault." Everyone is still quiet, Avery and Stiles sharing a sad look before they meet Isaac's gaze. "What?" He asks when he realizes no-one is looking at him.

Stiles decides to answer him. "You don't remember what you said right before you came out of it, do you?" Isaac shakes his head, his gaze landing on Avery who's anxiously chewing on her bottom lip. "You said when they captured you that they dragged you into a room and that there was a body inside."

"What body?" Isaac asks.

"Erica." Stiles sighs and they can see the beta wolf visibly deflate. "You said it was Erica."

..

..

As Isaac dries off, slipping into his dry t-shirt and wrapping the large towel around his wet pants, he hops up on one of the tables with Avery following suit. She's murmuring to him, asking if he's okay and if he's warm, and when he assures her that he is, she looks back to the room's occupants only to find Derek curiously staring at her.

Shrugging him off, Derek then goes into discussion about how he doesn't believe Erica is dead. Avery watches on sadly as Stiles and Scott try to get him to believe what Isaac had seen but the alpha remains in denial. She wants to pipe up, to throw in her own theories but she has no jurisdiction with the pack of wolves that she didn't even know existed until Stiles outed them all. So instead of trying to come up with theories and make plans with them, she lets them talk it out.

The discussion then moves on to about whoever the other person is in the vault with Boyd. Scott wonders if the girl who saved Isaac from the alphas is the other person but Isaac shuts that idea down by telling them that the girl is like them. A wolf. Stiles talks some more, rambling off more of his theories about a Werewolf Thunderdome which only causes Derek to want to jump the gun and rush into the bank vault now.

Deaton tries to talk him down but Derek hears none of it. Scott and Derek decide they need a plan and while Stiles messes with his phone, he finally comes up with one.

All they need is to get inside the vault where Boyd and his partner are holed up which is how Stiles figures out that the bank had been robbed before so all they have to do was figure out how the robbers got inside.

Derek demands that he figure out how it was done and Stiles agrees saying that it should only take minutes.

* * *

The next thing Avery hears is John yelling at her, Stiles, and Scott to wake up or else they were going to be late for school. They had slept through the night and weren't any closer to finding out how to get inside the bank vault like Derek had wanted to know. While Avery squeaks and rushes to jump in the shower, she calls out to Scott and Stiles to not wait for her because she'd be taking her bike.

By the time Avery shows up to school, it's already second period and then during sixth, Stiles informs her that he has a lead on how to break inside the vault. He then informs his sister that they're going to meet at Derek's after school to figure the rest out so he tells her to follow him when school lets out.

..

..

Getting to Derek's loft was rather quite easy and Avery memorizes the route for future reference. Isaac is nowhere to be seen but she does meet a rather creepy man by the name of Peter. He leers at her, asks if she's the smart cookie who has a laptop full of information that's unhackable, and then proceeds to ask if she'll be kind enough to let him take a peek.

Avery snorts at him, says that if Derek doesn't trust him enough to look then she wouldn't either, and puts an end to their discussion. While Stiles and Scott look over blue-prints of the bank's layout, Avery goes through papers about the building's materials and what not. Nothing pops out at her and by the time Stiles figures everything out, it's already night time.

Stiles, Scott, Avery, and Derek are all gathered around the table as Stiles informs them all how the robbers broke in and what materials they're going to need in order to tear down a wall that was built over their route. Derek says he can just punch through and when Stiles shows him just how much space he's going to have by holding Derek's fist inches way from his opened palm, Derek punches Stiles' hand and the teen goes flying back at the impact.

Avery is too busy cackling at her moronic brother that she completely misses Derek and Scott leaving, and it's only when she's alone with Peter and Stiles that she realizes they've already gone.

..

..

"Oh my god, will you shutup." Peter groans, dropping his head on the back of the couch. Stiles was standing by a wall of windows, looking out over the city as Avery sits at the table, singing bits and pieces of every song she knew that involved the words  _wolves_ and  _howl._ "I don't know why the Fates decided that two of you would do this world any good."

Avery chuckles, feeling triumphant at having annoyed the older wolf since he kept trying to guess the passwords to her laptop. When Stiles didn't join in since she knew that her brother didn't care for the wolf because of reasons, she turns to him only to find him staring up at the moon.

"Stiles? You okay?"

"I can't take waiting around like this, you know it's nerve wracking. My nerves are wracked. They're severely wracked.  _Wraaa-_ " Stiles whines.

"I could beat you unconscious and wake you when it's over." Peter suddenly dead-pans.

Both Stilinski's turn to glare at the bored wolf.

"You think Erica's really dead?" Stiles ignores Peter in favor of Avery.

Avery smiles sadly at her twin since she knew that Erica was somewhat of a friend and shrugs while saying, "I don't know." at the same time Peter says, "You think I really care?"

"No." Avery scoffs. "But you should." She glares again at him. "Erica is part of Derek's pack as are you which makes her your pack mate. You should be willing to fight to the death for one of your own."

Peter picks up his head, smirking at her. "Look at you." He chuckles. "Little human who thinks she knows about pack dynamics."

Avery sits forward in her chair. "I know more about pack dynamics than you think." She sneers at him. "My pseudo-brothers are the oldest of their kind and taught me all that I know in the little amount of time that I stayed with them."

"Yeah?" Peter smirks. "And just what is their kind?"

Stiles' gaze jumps back and forth between the two as if he were watching a tennis match though this was far more interesting. "Vampire and a vampire/werewolf hybrid."

Peter snorts, eyes crinkling in amusement as he laughs. "Sure. Okay."

Avery cocks an eyebrow at him, gesturing to her laptop. "Open it up and type in  _Lilyana._ One 'l' in Lily and one 'n' in Ana."

Stiles flails at his sister giving Peter the password as Peter eagerly scoops up the laptop. "Did you really just give him the password to all that information?!"

"Relax." She smugly grins when Peter's own grin falters. "Each file has it's own unique password. He's not getting into anything." Peter pouts at her and is about to close down the lid when Avery stops him. "But some pictures are not password protected." And just like that, Peter lights up. "Some pictures show Elijah and Nik with their features shifted and even a few of them feeding." She wrinkles her nose. "I keep them for non-believers who have no idea vampires exist. Go ahead and look through them and maybe next time you won't be so quick to judge a  _little human._ "

Peter happily clicks through the photos as Stiles shakes his head at his sister's and Peter's interaction. "Well that's great and all, really is it, but can we get back to the bigger problem here?!" Avery shrinks in her seat and gestures for him to continue on. Stiles sighs as he paces in front of the windows. "I just don't understand the bank, though, okay? Why a bank? Why wouldn't they chain them up in some underground lair or something. They're an alpha pack, right? So shouldn't they have a lair?"

Avery grins at his ridiculous theory while Peter huffs. "They're werewolves not Bond villains."

"Wait a sec." Stiles perks up. "Wait a sec! Maybe they're living there, you know? Like maybe the bank vault reminds them of their little wolf dens?!"

"Wolf dens?" Peter groans in agitation, closing the laptop now that he's been through every picture and can't get into anything else.

"Yeah, wolf dens." Stiles confirms. "Where do you live?" He asks Peter.

"In an underground network of caves hidden deep in the woods." Peter answers so seriously that Avery almost believes him.

"Whoa, really?" Stiles is almost in awe and Avery has to hide her giggle at how gullible he is.

"No, you idiot. My apartment is down town."

Stiles now seems crestfallen. "Alright, but still, that just proves that there's something up at the bank. And why wait around for the full moon, huh?" Stiles asks. "Why not just kill them whenever they want to?"

"Maybe they think it's poetic." Avery is torn between being annoyed and being amused by Peter's sassiness.

"They already had three full moons to be poetic." Stiles exasperates.

"And here you only had one full hour to be so annoy-" Peter stops mid-sentence, eyes flying open.

"No, go ahead and finish what you were saying. I'm a-annoy- What were you going to say there?" Stiles goads Peter but Avery immediately senses the seriousness of Peter's posture.

"What are the walls made of?" Peter sits forward, his mind racing a mile a second.

Stiles looks up and around the room before shrugging. "What? Uh, I don't know, like wood and brick-"

"No, the vault." Peter cuts him off, making his way towards Avery who's already flipping through papers. "The vault. The walls. What are they made out of?" Peter joins Avery in searching papers though he starts with the blueprints. "Where would it say that?" Stiles just watches on as they come up empty-handed. "This doesn't say." Peter sighs. "Where would it say t-the materials? The type of stone?"

Simultaneously, light bulbs went off over the twins' heads and they both lunge for the backpack though Stiles comes up with the paperwork first. "It's gotta be in there!" He hands Peter a stack of worn out looking papers.

Peter frantically searches through the papers, growling when he can't find what he was looking for as quickly as he hoped. Once found, he looks up wide-eyed and something immediately doesn't feel right. "Hecatolite."

"Is that awful? It sounds awful."

Avery and Peter share a look before both of them turn to Stiles. "Get them on the phone. Call them. Now!" Peter demands.

"Okay. Why?" Stiles asks as he retrieves his phone.

"'Cause Boyd and that girl aren't going to kill each other." Peter tells him.

"They're gonna kill Derek and Scott." Avery finishes for him.

Stiles looks floored and immediately dials Scott's phone. The first two times ring until the voicemail picks up and it's finally on the third call that Scott finally answers.

" _Hey, Stiles. Now's not the best time-"_

"Scott!" Stiles frantically cuts him off, putting the phone on speaker and holding it between him, Avery, and Peter. "Scott, no, listen to me okay?! Look, you gotta get out of there! The walls of the vault are made with a mineral called hecatolite. It scatters the moonlight." He tells his friend what Peter and Avery had filled him in on.

" _What does that mean?"_

"Look, it keeps the moonlight out, okay?" Voices and growling can be heard in the background. "They haven't felt the full moon in months."

"Think of it like the Gladiators in the Roman Colosseum." Peter tries to get Scott to understand. "They used to starve the lions for three days making the lions more vicious, more out of control. Deucalion has kept them from shifting for three full moons, diminishing their tolerance to it."

"Scott, they're gonna be stronger." Stiles cuts back in.

"More savage- more bloodthirsty. Scott, they're the lions." Peter adds in.

Avery chews on her bottom lip anxiously as growls still come through the speaker. "They're the starved lions and you and Derek just stepped in to the Colosseum." Avery tells him.

The growls get louder, more angrier, and then muffled voices come through. Stiles and Avery can't understand anything but then the sudden look of shock on Peter's face lets them know that he did.

"Scott?" Stiles tries to get his attention. "Hey, Scott?!"

No answer comes but then a few seconds later, Scott's voice can be heard saying,  _"No, wait!"_

Growls and snarls emanate though the speaker and everyone shares a frantic look. "Scott? Scott, are you hearing this?" Stiles tries yet again. "SCOTT!"

The phone line goes dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to fit in Avery as much as I can. I hope you don't mind when I skim over details during some parts.
> 
> Sit tight, up next is "Fireflies" and Avery finally gets a bit of action. Not that type of action, you pervs!
> 
> Please let me know what you thought of this chapter!
> 
> See you next Sunday :)


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Avery's action outfit can be found [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/fireflies_we_might_fall_ch/set?id=96794171).

**Fireflies**

Stiles, Avery, and Peter try in vain to get back in contact with the boys but both their phones keep ringing until their voicemails pick up. Stiles grows frustrated and scared for his friend while Avery paces right beside him until she remembers the look of surprise that had passed over Peter's features.

Like the inquiring person she is, Avery asks what all that was about. Peter, of course, tries to throw her off with her every attempt to find out what was being said in the vault but when she reminds him that if they're going to work together,  _trust_ is a two-way street. Stiles doesn't hold his breath for Peter to answer because the man is always as vague as possible but he's pleasantly surprised when Peter answers Avery.

He tells them that the other person in the vault with Boyd turned out to be Cora. At Avery and Stiles' blank expressions, he goes into detail about who Cora is to himself and Derek (his niece and Derek's younger sister), and why the both of them had thought her to be dead. By the end of story time, Avery is shocked to her very core and completely disgusted by one Kate Argent.

She feels no remorse for the woman or the Argents when Peter tells her that he ripped out Kate's throat with his claws a while back when he was on his revenge kick.

..

..

A good half hour later, the door to Derek's loft slides open.

Derek walks in bloodied with a torn shirt, his face somber as an equally somber Isaac trails in behind him. Peter sits back while Stiles and Avery rush to Derek, the alpha sighing as he looks them in the eyes. "Go home."

"Excuse me?" Stiles says. "You get here after what we suspect was a brutal showdown and you tell us to  _go home?_ "

Isaac maneuvers out of the room to do only God knows what when Derek speaks again. "Erica's dead. Isaac and I just got finished burying her." Avery's shoulders slump, the Stilinski female knowing full well that losing a pack mate was horrible for whoever was in charge of them. "Boyd and Cora escaped so Isaac, Scott, and I are going to look for them before they make their way into the suburbs. You and Avery should be home where it's safe."

Stiles opens his mouth to say something else but Avery cuts him off. "I want in." She tells him. "While I'm not a good tracker, I can keep them distracted while you three work on taking them down."

Peter looks impressed at the human's willingness to help out, and Derek even looks like he is thinking about it, but Stiles puts his foot down. "No. No way. You heard them over the phone, Avery. They're savage right now. You're no match for any of them. Especially if they're strong enough for Derek to be worried."

Avery is ready to protest but Derek suddenly agrees with Stiles. "He's right." He tells her. "You and Stiles go home. Peter will follow you to make sure you get there."

Peter huffs but does as he's told, getting up to escort the Stilinski twins home but Avery really wants to help. With the look Stiles is giving her though, she knows he won't cave on this.

Sighing and moving to pack up her laptop, Avery grumbles on her way out with Stiles and Peter trailing her.

..

..

When Avery and Stiles get home, John is shocked to see them before midnight since it was the official start of their weekend. Stiles and Avery are too keyed up to even think about sleeping so while Avery goes to shower and change, Stiles queues up a marathon of movies and gets started on pulling snacks together.

When Avery finally comes downstairs towel-drying her hair, Stiles snorts at her choice of a white v-neck that easily falls to mid-thigh with an over-sized paw print on it that could easily be mistaken for a wolf's print and makes a comment about her black leather leggings. According to him, leggings should not be worn as pants but Avery doesn't seem care. They're home so she'll wear whatever she pleases.

She finds out that their Dad had went up to bed while she was in the shower so the Stilinski twins set up downstairs and wait for any updates from Scott while watching movies.

It wasn't until after three in the morning that John wakes them up, telling them to head up to their rooms and that he'd be back whenever he could. Apparently he had gotten called in and was heading out to the woods where a camper went missing. As soon as John left, Avery and Stiles scramble for their phones and attempt to get in contact with Scott but he wasn't picking up.

And moments later, Stiles gets a call from Lydia. Apparently she had been on her way to a twenty-four hour mini-mart to get something for a headache when she suddenly realized that she was at the city pool where she found a dead body. Avery had heard all about Peter's attack on Lydia and how she had never been the same after that so the siblings wasted no time in slipping on shoes and jackets. When Avery slid into black leather boots that laced up to mid-calf and a leather jacket, Stiles quickly wondered just how many pairs of boots and different leather jackets his sister actually had.

As they run outside, Stiles isn't too surprised to see Avery make a be-line for her motorcycle, it's engine roaring to life as she speeds away from the driveway. Stiles rolls his eyes at her dramatic exit before climbing into his jeep and making an exit just as dramatic as his sister.

By the time Avery makes it to Lydia, Lydia's a trembling mess as she keeps mumbling  _why is it always me?_ and wraps her friend up in a hug.

Seconds later, Stiles pulls up and hops out of his jeep. "Lydia?! Lydia, are you okay?" He asks as he runs up to them.

"I'm okay." She numbly answers and Avery pulls away from the hug. "That. Over there. Not okay." Her voice trembles when Avery and Stiles turn to see the body for the first time.

"Yeah. Alright. I'm gonna call our Dad." Stiles fumbles with his phone when he finally tears his eyes away from the scene.

"I already called 9-1-1." Lydia quickly blurts.

"You called the police before you called me?" Stiles looks mildly offended.

"I'm supposed to call you first when I find a dead body?!"

Stiles' eye most definitely twitches. "Yes!" He shouts at her which snaps Lydia out of her shock just enough to make a bitch face at him.

Moments later, they finally get Scott on the phone, Stiles having to put it on speaker so everyone can hear as he relays what they found to their werewolf friend.

" _Are you sure?"_ Scott asks.

"Yep." Stiles glances at the body again. "Throat ripped out. Blood everywhere."

Lydia flinches as Stiles recalls the wounds but when Avery actually takes a look at the body, something doesn't seem right. She wants to get closer but she knows the closer she gets, the more likely it is she can tamper with evidence and that'd be a bad thing seeing as the police are already on their way.

"It's like the freaking Shining over here." Stiles fidgets as his gaze travels back and forth between nothing and the dead body that's only a few feet away. "If two little twin girls come out of the woods and start asking me to play with them forever and ever, I'm not going to be surprised."

Avery snorts in amusement but then bites her bottom lip when she realizes Stiles is glaring at her. This definitely wasn't the time to laugh.

" _Can you get a little closer to make sure it was them?"_ Scott wonders.

Avery's nose crinkles, not wanting to blame Derek's newly found sister and pack mate but there's no-one else they can think of that would do this. Especially after the two savage wolves pulling a disappearing act on them.

"Make sure it was them? Scott, who else do you think is going around ripping throats out?"

" _Please, just do it."_

Stiles sighs as he glances around, dropping his phone to his side as he does what he was told. Getting an up close and personal look, Stiles sees something and gets a bit closer. Avery just knows he found something but he doesn't seem to want to share and then Stiles confirms that the guy's throat does appear to be ripped out.

The trio stand in silence as they wait for the police to get there to the crime scene when Stiles' phone beeps with an alert. Scott texted him letting him know that they were getting help from a professional and seeking out Chris Argent, Allison's father. As Stiles and Lydia weigh the pros and cons of having the help of a Hunter, Avery can't help but feel that she should be out there helping wrangle up the wolves. While her brother and friend are in deep discussion, Avery makes a decision and slinks off towards her bike. She knows Stiles is going to be pissed when he hears her bike roar to life but there are lives on the line. She needs to help.

The second her bike roars to life, she shifts into gear and peels out of the parking lot, heading for home where she needs to pick up a few necessities. By the time she gets home, Stiles and Lydia have both blown up her phone. Ignoring everything they've said, she shoots off a group text message to the both of them.

_'I have to do something. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Stiles, Dad will be busy with the missing camper so he won't show up there. If he gets home before I do, cover for me. Tell him I'm spending the night at Lydia's because she didn't want to be alone. And Lydia, if my Dad calls you, lie your ass off. I'll update you soon.'_

Avery checks the time, finding out it's just after four and turns her phone off. She doesn't need any distractions and with the werewolves' sensitive hearing, she doesn't need them to find her because they heard the vibrations of her phone.

She bounds up to her room and straight to her closet, pushing aside boxes on the top shelf and reaches for the back. Her hand hits the quiver of arrows first and she immediately pulls those down and tosses them on her bed. She realizes that each of these arrows have a glass bulb situated behind it's point and are filled with liquefied vervain. The bulbs are meant to explode once they're embedded in it's target, which makes great for weakening a vampire so while the vervain is harmless to the wolves, the arrows will still hurt them. And since she's on a time crunch, she has no time to exchange out the arrows.

A metal lock box comes down next and while she tosses that on her bed, she turns around inside her closet and reaches up above the door where her bow is hanging on the small piece of wall that's out of view.

She walks up to her bed, slinging the quiver of arrows and bow across her back before pulling on a silver chain from around her neck and pulling a small key from the inside of her shirt. She had always wore it when she wasn't dressing up for an event, and John and Stiles always thought it was a fashion statement. Quickly unlocking the box, she pulls out two daggers, each dagger's blade inscribed with ancient runes and symbols that keep a supernatural being from healing right away.

It was always a good idea to keep a witch as a best friend.

Without wasting any more time, she tosses the lock box back into her closet before shoving the two daggers into her boots. She quickly makes her way back outside, hops on her bike and drives away. She doesn't know where she's going and she doesn't want to ask Scott what the plan is because she knows he'll send her back home.

She drives through the suburbs, keeping an eye out for anything unusual before heading for the Preserve. She knows her Dad is probably still out there so she keeps her distance while still managing to make sure no wolves are around. She drives around the town for a while, never managing to run into anything or anyone and parks out by the school. Minutes into parking and listening for any noises, a car pulls up to the school and heads towards the back where the buses are always parked. She realizes that the car is Allison's, so wondering what the female is up to, she abandons her bike where it's out of sight and jogs towards where Allison was seen heading to.

As Avery sneaks up behind the buses and peers around one, she sees Allison pulling out a bow of her own from the trunk of her car. Grinning mischievously, Avery takes off her bow and pulls an arrow out, setting it up before stepping out from the dark.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Allison jumps at her words, hands working to set an arrow of her own and pointing it at Avery. When she sees who it is, she sighs and lets her arms fall. "Avery? What are you doing?"

"I asked you first."

Allison's gaze travels to the arrow still pointed at her before her lips twitch. "I'm here to help. I figured out that my Dad and the others were herding Boyd and the girl here so I'm going to make sure the plan goes according to."

At that, Avery's bow and arrow lowers. "Good. 'Cause I'm here for the same thing only I didn't know this is where they were headed."

Allison grins and gestures her over. "You want to trade in some of your arrows? I'm using flash-bang so it'll just mess with their eyesight. Yours look kind of lethal."

Avery snorts and takes Allison up on the offer, walking over to the opened trunk and taking off her quiver. "Thanks. These are equipped for vampires, anyway." She gestures the glass bulb. "These break in their bodies and the vervain burns them. It'll weaken them in a fight." She explains. "They're the first ones I came across in my closet."

"Ohh, handy and clever." Allison picks one up to examine it as Avery switches them out. "Have you ever thought about putting wolfsbane in them?"

"Liquefied wolfsbane." Avery smirks. "Wolves hate it but I'm sad to say I left those in New Orleans."

Allison chuckles and closes the trunk as she and Avery lean against the side of her car. "So you're, uh, a Hunter, huh? How long have you been doing this?"

Allison misses the way Avery rolls her eyes over a certain word but Avery politely corrects her. "I'm a soldier of sorts. Not a Hunter. I don't seek anyone out- today is a first for me- but I protect people nonetheless." Allison takes Avery's explanation with a nod and smile. "What about you? I didn't know you were a Hunter until recently."

"Yeah. Family business." Allison grimaces. "I've made some good choices and some very bad ones quite recently. I'm just trying to make up for that now, I guess."

Avery subtly sighs in relief at Allison's honesty and the two girls lapse into a silence after that. They both have quivers of arrows slung across their backs as they listen for anything out of the ordinary. After what seems like forever, growls and snarls can be heard followed by the honking of a car horn.

"We need to get higher up if we want to catch them off guard. We don't want them seeing us at ground level." Allison says.

Both girls look around for a higher up and Avery's gaze settles on the buses. "Those high enough?"

Allison nods and quickly races after Avery who very easily gets the door to a bus pried open. They run towards the end of the bus where Avery opens the emergency hatch to the roof. Each girl easily hoists themselves up, closing the hatch and spreading out to either side of the bus.

The growls suddenly come from up above and both girls ready their bows and arrows. They keep their eyes peeled for the rooftop and the second Boyd and Cora come into view and drop to the ground, Allison and Avery let their arrows fly. They aim for the ground by their feet, the flash-bangs confusing and momentarily stunning the werewolves in place. Arrow after arrow whistles by the wolves and the second Boyd and Cora realize what's going on and try to escape, the arrows start to hit the wall on either side of them to keep them in place.

The wolves finally find an open door, taking the opportunity to run inside and get away from the arrows when Isaac runs into view, slamming the door shut and latching it closed. Avery and Allison share a brief look of triumph before Allison winks at her and slides down the sloped windshield of the bus, and out of view. Isaac then catches Avery's gaze, eyes wide with shock before he smirks as she curtsies atop the roof of the bus.

"And Derek didn't want my help." Avery grins as she walks the length of the bus towards the windshield, sliding down and landing next to Isaac who walked alongside her at ground level. "We totally owned those wolves."

"That was, uh, impressive." Isaac tells her. "But now we got to check the front to make sure they didn't get out and that Derek actually got them down to the boiler room."

Avery nods and the two race for the front of the school just as a lean man with salt and pepper stubble comes out, taser prod in hand. He looks to Isaac, ready to say something but when his gaze lands on Avery, he goes with something else. "New friend?"

"Stiles' long lost twin, actually." She introduces herself. "I take it your Allison's father?"

"I am." He confirms, his gaze traveling to the bow in her hands. He quirks an eyebrow at her before looking back at Isaac. "Scott and Derek got them in the boiler room. My job here is done."

Isaac and Avery both nod at him, standing a few feet apart as they watch Chris get into his vehicle and drive away. As soon as Chris is out of sight, the duo don't even have a moment to relax. Loud roars echo throughout the night, followed by softer yet still menacing growls but Avery knows it's bad when Isaac tenses. They take one look at each other before the both of them are bolting into the school. Avery follows after Isaac since she's not as familiar with the school as he is and nearly crashes into his back when he skids to a stop. "Scott?" He calls out, flinching back when the sunlight hits him in the eyes. "The suns come up." He breathes lowly, looking to Avery before slowly smiling. "Scott! The suns coming up!" He yells and then they're both running again.

When Isaac opens the door that leads to the boiler room, they see Scott ripping open the actual boiler room door and rushing inside. Isaac doesn't say anything as he scurries down the stairs and Avery is quick to follow. She comes to a stop right behind Scott and Isaac, peering in between them at a battered and worn down Derek whose shirt is bloodied and ripped to shreds.

He looks up, eyes darting to all three of them before sighing, "There's a teacher. I'll take care of her." He pants heavily and then gestures to Boyd and Cora who are out cold on the ground at either side of him. "Get them out of here."

Scott looks to Isaac and finally notices that Avery is there but with a shake of her head, he lets it go for now as he and Isaac move forward. Scott takes Boyd and Isaac takes Cora, both of them getting the tired out wolves out of there and to Derek's car.

Avery slowly steps forward as Derek climbs to his feet and offers him a small smile. "I thought I told you to go home." He says.

"And I thought I told you I could help." She throws back. "Come on, lead me to the teacher so I can bring her out."

"I said that I'd-"

"-take care of her?" Avery muses before she picks at his shirt. "Sorry, Derek, but all you're going to do is scare her with all the blood and rips to your tee. It's better if I bring her out and then you can explain. Somewhat."

If he wasn't so tired and worn down, Avery was sure that Derek would be glaring. Instead, he picks the bow out of her hands. "Don't want her thinking you're going to shoot her, do you?"

Avery's lips twitch before she concedes, letting Derek take her bow before offering up her quiver of arrows as well. As Derek leads her to a storage unit in the back, Avery shrugs out of her leather jacket and hands it to him to hold. He nods to a fence-like door and Avery opens it up, stepping cautiously inside.

"Ms. Whoever-Is-In-Here, it's okay! You can come out now." A head peeks around one of the shelves and as Avery holds up her hands in a surrendering manner, she realizes is Ms. Blake as the teacher slowly crouches into view. "Hey, Ms. B. It's fine. It's all over."

"M-Ms. Stilinski?" Ms. Blake stutters. "What are-.. what happened?"

Avery offers her hand to the teacher, pulling Ms. Blake so she's standing on her own two feet. "It's a long story. Really." Avery tells her as she leads the trembling teacher out of the supply room. "And I kind of don't think you'd believe me anyway."

The second they get out of the supply room, Ms. Blake freezes when her eyes land on Derek. "W-who's he?"

Avery follows her gaze, the bloodied and worn out alpha staring at them. "Him? That's Derek. Your night in shining armor." She teases.

Ms. Blake's gaze flickers between Derek and Avery before finally staying on Derek as she offers him a shaky smile. "T-thank you."

He only nods in response, slinking further into the shadows and Avery takes that as her cue to get Ms. Blake out of the boiler room and to her car so she can finally go home.

Just when she thinks she can finally take a deep breath, Scott runs up to her after Ms. Blake leaves the parking lot. "We need to go. Stiles said to meet him at the hospital." Eyes wide, Avery's heart starts to race. "Calm down!" Scott quickly mutters. "He's fine. Mostly. But he says he has vital information that we need to hear."

Her heart doesn't stop racing and before Scott can say anything else, she's running. Running towards the place she abandoned her bike at with Scott running after her. "My bike. You drive." She tells him once they reach it.

Even though the situation seems kind of dire, Scott beams as he eagerly climbs onto the bike and waits for Avery to climb on behind him before starting the engine and racing towards the Hospital.

..

..

..

When Scott and Avery make it the hospital, Ms. McCall intercepts them and leads them to the morgue. Throughout the entire trip there, she says nothing and sighs sadly when she sees Stiles.

Scott and Avery both share stunned looks at how calm and eerily quiet Stiles is being but when they glance at what he's staring at, they realize it's a body.

Taking a few steps forward, they realize that it's not only a body, but  _Heather_. The girl whose party they had all attended.

Scott and Avery move so that they're standing on either side of Stiles, Scott exhaling sadly and patting his friend on the back while Avery lays her head on Stiles' shoulder. Stiles suddenly leans forward, pulling the sheet up and over to hide Heather's face and slit throat from view.

"So Boyd and Cora might not have killed anyone?" Scott breaks the silence when he realizes it was a  _slit throat_  and not a ripped out one.

Stiles sighs and hangs his head. "I wish they did."

"Why?"

"Well I'm not exactly sure yet." Stiles says as he keeps his gaze locked on Heather's covered body. "But the other girl who was out in the woods- Emily.. eventually they're going to find her. She's one of them- Emily. Heather. The guy Lydia found at the pool. All three were virgins." And wow, she did not see this coming. "They're all going to have the same three injuries- strangled, throats slashed, head bashed in. It's called a three-fold death."

"So if these aren't random killings, what are they?" Scott wonders aloud.

Avery gulps, picking her head up from Stiles' shoulder as she and her twin share a brief look of understanding. Avery had never seen anything like this but she had read about it and now, she couldn't believe it was actually happening.

"Sacrifices. Human sacrifices."

Scott gapes at his best friend and Avery hugs herself as she stares down at the bodies.

Shit just got  _very_ real.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know what you thought in a review. It'll really make my day :)
> 
> Progress updates and random thoughts throughout the writing process can be found on my tumblr. (melissalzn) Look me up. There's a bunch of Teen Wolf, Supernatural, Vampire Diaries, and Harry Potter reblogs in between :)
> 
> See you next Sunday!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Avery's outfit can be found [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/unleashed_we_might_fall_ch.8/set?id=97551757).
> 
> And.. I'm not gonna lie- the way that the episodes are shot, it gets confusing on how to tell what time of day they're in and in what class period so I'm going to make up my own.
> 
> The class schedule go as follows:
> 
> First Period- Economics  
> Second Period- French  
> Third Period- P.E/Free Period  
> Fourth Period- Chemistry  
> Fifth Period- Algebra  
> LUNCH  
> Sixth Period- English  
> Seventh Period- Home Ec.
> 
> I don't think it's confusing but if it is, well I'm sorry =/ This is Avery's schedule, jsyk.

**Unleashed**

After making sure Derek got the wolves settled in and giving Boyd a cover story on why he went missing and is suddenly back, the rest of the weekend is spent catching up on sleep. With three unsolved identical murders, John is put back on the night shift which ends up being pretty much an  _around the clock_  shift. While making sure nothing fishy is going on around town, he still manages to make sure his kids never go anywhere alone and makes sure to tell them to stay in a group if going out with friends.

And during the time that they spend at home, Avery emails Elijah what had happened and if he had any information for her yet. The information that he had sent her before was about pack dynamics which is pretty much everything that she already knew about alphas, betas, and omegas- though the breed of wolves she knew about first- they didn't use the term omegas. She learns that this new breed of wolves have three different eye colors and the meanings behind them. She also leans how wolfsbane is actually lethal to these kind of wolves if not cured in time, different ways to kill them, and how to severely weaken them to keep them from shifting.

Elijah then pestered her about sending in Nik because he doesn't like the way she has to deal with an Alpha Pack on top of what appears to be ritual sacrifices but Avery doesn't want him involved. Though Nik adores her and would do anything for her, she isn't sure how he would take her being back in the supernatural business. With her going away to Beacon Hills, this was Avery's chance to lead a normal teenage girl life and Nik was actually happy for her. And if he found out that she wasn't leading such a normal life, she's pretty sure he'd show up and eliminate every non-human being in Avery's life in Beacon Hills and that  _includes_  the good guys.

And if Avery's being quite honest with herself, she quite likes the Hale Pack and Scott.

* * *

Monday morning is another early one for Avery but this time, she wakes up Stiles with her. For some reason, the boys athletics workout was to be held before school even started and since Stiles was on the Lacrosse team, Cross Country was mandatory for him so he needed to be there on time.

After back-to-back showers- Avery going first since she took longer to get dressed- Avery makes Stiles make a quick stop by the early morning bakery and cafe. She picks them up coffee and sausage biscuits while also picking up a couple of donuts, and drops one of everything back off at home for their Dad. Stiles tries to protest but Avery just tells him to cut their Dad some slack since he's been working a lot lately. Stiles finally obliges and when Avery comes back out of their house with her motorcycle helmet, Stiles takes that as his cue to leave.

The whole point for Avery showing up to school early is for the sole purpose of seeking out Ms. Blake, if she hasn't fled the entire State yet, and talking to the teacher to make sure she understood that she couldn't talk about what she had seen. But when she pulls into the parking lot out front, the whole purpose of getting there early isn't exactly a great idea anymore when she sees Derek and Isaac getting out of Derek's vehicle.

"What are you doing here?" She asks Derek after parking and taking off her helmet, walking towards his car while ruffling her hair to look presentable as Isaac takes out a bag from the back seat.

Derek, in his dark green henley and jeans, merely tucks his hands inside his pockets. "Your Father actually let you out of the house dressed like that?" He ignores her question. "And how do you even ride a motorcycle in those shoes?"

Avery smirks, not shrinking back as Derek and Isaac both take in her ripped black skinny jeans, peep-toe ankle strap boots, and a vintage tassel open back- punk skull tank top. "Dad was still asleep when I left and I'm multi-talented." She answers. "Now again, what are you doing here?"

"Isaac has practice-" Derek dead-pans. "-that he's going to be late for if he doesn't leave right now." Isaac's grin falters as he lowers his head with a blush, quickly departing from the group to make it on time. Once out of ear-shot, Derek gestures towards the school and starts to walk. "And I'm also here to talk with that teacher. Make sure she doesn't say anything she's not supposed to."

"Oh, good." Avery sighs a huge sigh of relief, stopping the both of them in their trek towards the school. Derek looks down at her with a quirked eyebrow so she goes on to explain. "That's the whole purpose of me being here too." She tells him. "I didn't want Ms. Blake opening her mouth so I came to talk with her but you're a much better person to intimate her with." Derek's lip twitch in amusement and carefully masked awe that Stiles' twin, who hasn't known them all that long, is willing to make sure someone didn't blab their secret. "And also, just so you know, if your intimidation skills don't work- I am in league with vampires." She grins up at him. "If she threatens to talk, I can get a vampire down here within hours to erase the memory."

"I, uh, I don't think it'll come down to that."

"If you say so." Avery shrugs. "I was just putting it out there. And now that you're doing that," She starts to walk backwards, fiddling with the motorcycle key in one hand while holding on to her helmet with the other. "-I'm going to go and pick up breakfast for the boys. All that training will have them hungry and agitated before first period even starts."

Derek doesn't walk into the school until Avery is pulling out of the parking lot. Turning to the school entrance, he heaves a sigh. He has a teacher to intimidate.

..

..

By the time Avery makes it back to school, she has fifteen minutes to spare. She waits outside of the boy's locker room, messenger bag filled with sausage and egg biscuits, hash browns, and several bottles of orange juice and apple juice.

Danny is the first to come out and since they had never been properly introduced before, he makes sure to introduce himself now. He tells her how he heard that Stiles had a twin and he couldn't believe that she was actually a Stilinski. He and Avery talk for a few minutes and when she asks him if he's hungry, he replies with a yes and that he was heading for the cafeteria to try and get some breakfast before classes started. Avery then grins, opening her bag up to him. Danny's mouth drops open at what he sees and Avery explains that she only had so much food because she has to feed three boys before class started, but they could make do with two of everything missing.

Danny then proceeds to claim Avery as his favorite Stilinski while taking two biscuits, two hash browns, and two bottles of orange juice for himself.

Minutes after Danny gives his thanks and takes his leave, the three boys she was waiting for to begin with- come out. While Scott and Isaac zero in their gaze on her bag, Avery grins coyly before handing Stiles said bag and telling him to choose what he wanted first. When he sees what's inside, it looks as if he could cry tears of joy as he takes three biscuits, three hash browns, and two bottles of apple juice. The bag then gets passed to Scott, Avery telling him that the rest is to be split between himself and Isaac. The look on their faces- the look of hunger and awe- is enough to make Avery crack up.

..

..

Turns out Isaac has first period Economics with Avery and while Finstock bitches at Isaac for having food in class, Avery sneaks out one of everything and passes it to the Coach. He immediately quiets down after that with a look that says  _never speak of this again_  and lets Isaac eat the rest of his food in peace.

She ends up getting two texts that morning; one from Derek and one from Allison.

Derek reminds her that he still has her bow, arrows, and jacket- for her to pick it up whenever- and that the teacher wasn't going to be a problem. Allison tells her that her Dad may or may not have found her vervain-filled arrows and that she may have had to explain what vervain is, including it's qualities. Avery quietly laughs, telling her it was no big deal and that she can keep them as long as she could keep the remaining flash-bang arrows she had left. Allison agrees. She quickly then texts back Derek, telling him that she'd pick up her stuff soon and that the only reason Ms. Blake wasn't going to talk was because he was so good looking- and that Ms. Blake probably has a crush on him. It takes Derek nearly ten minutes to reply but when he does- his reply is  _'Shutup.'_ , and yeah- he's probably crushing on her too so she drops it.

French passes by with nothing spectacular happening but the class schedule that Beacon High followed was weird. Every other week, instead of having a free period, the school had them taking P.E. One would complain that the schedule seemed to throw them off but not Avery. She actually finds herself liking it.

So after Avery dresses in a sports bra with a cool grey training crew tee over it, dark grey capri leggings, and white sneakers- she waits outside the boys locker room for the boys.

Isaac comes out first, telling her that Stiles and Scott should be out soon so Avery waits for them. When the other two boys finally come out, Scott is laughing and Stiles looks slightly offended. She asks what happened and Scott happily tells her what transpired between Danny and Stiles when Stiles said he needed to be sexed up a little too loudly because he didn't want to be sacrificed as a virgin. Danny had jokingly offered to sex her brother up and told him to plan to spend the night because he liked to cuddle. And for a moment, Stiles had almost believed him.

Avery cackles the entire time it takes for them to get outside and to the beginning of the trail that Coach has them running. Stiles leaves them behind with a huff, pushing his way through the crowd of students so he doesn't get left behind when the Coach blows the whistle. Avery's grinning and laughing still when Scott suddenly slows to a stop, eyes trained on Isaac who's crouched and tying his shoe. She doesn't think anything about it but when she moves to step towards Isaac, Scott grips her wrist to keep her in place.

"Don't."

"What?" Avery tries to shake him off but Scott shakes his head and points out the two identical twins that are flanking Isaac.

Scott goes tense as he studies them, turning to Avery and mouthing the word  _alphas._  Avery goes wide-eyed, looks at the twins and clenches her teeth in anger. They're alphas. Fucking  _alphas_ and she knows now that these are the two who can morph into one. The same ones who chased down Isaac since the beta wolf told them everything when Derek demanded him to.

The whistle suddenly blows, the twins racing off and before Isaac could take off after them, Scott lunges and catches his shoulder. "Isaac."

Isaac turns and looks, face scared and determined all at the same time. "It's them." He says before throwing off Scott's hand and running.

"Isaac, wait!" Scott calls after him and Avery contemplates what to do before following both beta wolves running away, eyes eventually landing on her brother who looks as if he's about to keel over from running a few feet.

She allows herself to snort at her brother before she finds herself running a couple of yards behind Scott and trying to push herself faster through the crowd of students. The alpha twins and Isaac easily run themselves far ahead of the crowd and Avery is trying her damnedest to keep up with them. She pushes her way through the throng of students and just when she's about to break free, a hand grips her arm and yanks her back.

"Don't!" Stiles wheezes. "It's going to get ugly."

Avery manages to look apologetic before shrugging off her brother's grip and ignoring his pleas to not chase after them. Moments later, she finds herself in front of the other students and running the trail up ahead. She gets far enough that's there's no-one in front or behind her and then thinks about continuing the trail but a ferocious growl catches her attention, and she quickly finds herself sliding down an embankment to her right without a second thought.

Two more growls sound and she comes to a stop just behind Scott as he roars at the alpha twins with their glowing red eyes, fangs, and claws. A blood-curling scream pierces the air, catching everyone off guard but before the twins leave, they spare a curious glance in Avery's direction before running towards the ruckus.

Scott and Isaac take a moment to get themselves under control, both taking a second to acknowledge Avery's presence before running towards the loud murmurs and shocked gasps of their fellow students. She slams into Isaac's shoulder as she tries to stop, eyes going wide when she finally sees what had everyone freaking out, and Isaac distractedly lays an arm around her shoulders- pulling Avery into his side when she gasps.

"It's him, isn't it?" Stiles asks as Avery's eyes dart up and down the dead body that was tied to the tree by his neck, throat slit open and blood everywhere. Scott doesn't answer but simply nods his head.

"Him who?" She manages to mutter.

"The guy who visited Deaton's clinic last night." Stiles softly tells her. "After he had his dog checked out and left, Scott went outside only to find the dog and no owner." Avery frowns at that, letting her eyes finally move off of the body.

Everyone lingers at the crime scene, no-one speaking but the second Avery sees her Dad and one of his deputies pushing through the gathered students, she schools her facial features to make it look like she's disgusted and a bit nauseous at the sight of the dead body while wrapping her arms around herself.

"Everyone, back!" John yells at them before turning to his deputy. "Get everyone back and get this area quarantined off before they trample every piece of evidence."

The deputy did as she was told, getting everyone to back up while John takes a brief moment to check on his kids. "You okay? Everything alright?" He lays a hand on Avery's arm since she actually seemed to pull off her charade before glancing curiously at Isaac who still had his arm around his daughter.

"Y-yeah. I'm f-fine." She stammers, earning a quick grin from Isaac at her acting skills.

John takes her word for it, looking back towards the body before Stiles launches himself at their Dad- pointing out the similar markings from the other murders. John agrees but tells Stiles to let it go and when he spares a glance at Avery, Isaac, and Scott- he tells them all to go back to school. When no-one listens, John turns toward Finstock.

"Coach, give us a hand here?"

Finstock suddenly puffs his chest out, following orders. "You heard the man. Nothing to see here!" He yells at the students. "Probably just some.. homeless kid."

"Coach." Scott gets his attention. "He was a Senior."

Finstock sighs and for a moment, Avery thinks he feels bad. "He wasn't on the team, was he?" Well, so much for feeling remorse.

A blonde girl suddenly runs up to the body screaming and crying but the female deputy catches her. She's screaming out the name 'Kyle' and sobbing, and John finally sends them off back to school.

They only get a few feet away before Finstock stops them. "Stilinski!" All three- John, Avery, and Stiles turn to him. "Girl Stilinski." He reiterates and Avery nods to let him know she's paying attention. "You're on the Track team." He tells her. "I could use a runner like you. You run like you could bring in a few trophies."

"Sure." Avery agrees with ease, turning to walk away with her brother and friends but before she turns, she catches John grinning proudly at her.

..

..

Classes resume as if nothing happened and Avery is momentarily ignoring Stiles, Scott, and Isaac after they made her choose whether she thought the killings were by the alphas or someone else completely. She originally thought it was someone else, mentally agreeing with her brother when he made them realize there was a lack of werewolf-itude and wanted to say so but for some reason, she didn't want to go against Isaac. So instead, she remained quiet and went to class.

Apparently after she had left, Scott sided with Stiles and Isaac had it in his head that the alphas where behind Kyle's murder and that they had killed the girl who had saved him so he was dead set on killing them.

As she's sitting in the cafeteria- waiting for everyone to get there- she thinks about the fight she's been hearing about, how apparently the FBI is now involved with the murder investigations, and about the 'Slap Heard All Around The World'. Her brother really needed to work on being subtle. Or wait longer than fifteen minutes to question the girlfriend of the dead if her boyfriend was a virgin.

Scott is the first to the table, sitting down with his tray of food and gingerly picking at everything while they wait for Stiles, Lydia, and Allison. He tells her how he thinks the twins are trying to get to Danny and Lydia but that he has no idea why and then he explains to her what had happened with the alpha twins and Isaac, and how they made it seem like Isaac beat the crap out of Ethan.

Isaac is currently serving lunch detention and Avery glares daggers at the twins when they cockily stroll into the cafeteria. Before she could even open her mouth to say anything, Scott is up and out of his seat, running for the doors. When she catches the twins smirking, she rolls her eyes and runs after Scott, leaving her brother and Lydia gaping at their sudden departure.

By the time Avery catches up, she can hear someone screaming  _"Isaac!",_ growling, and then Scott is violently shoving a soda machine to the side and yanking open the door, grabbing Isaac by the back of his shirt and tossing him out of the room. Avery sees the volatile werewolf being tossed at her, though not on purpose, and instead of moving out of the way- she braces herself and lets Isaac's back collide with her chest. She quickly hooks her arms through his elbows and falls to the ground with him while he's snapping and snarling but keeps Isaac from clawing at Scott.

Isaac and Scott are both sporting a set of werewolf fangs and glowing yellow eyes as Avery struggles to keep the werewolf down, and Scott quickly kneels down and grips Isaac by the throat. " _ISAAC!"_ He half shouts, half roars.

Isaac instantly calms, glowing eyes vanishing as he pants heavily. Avery releases his arms when he stops struggling- pushing themselves to sit up but still cradling Isaac to her chest and between her legs. Allison comes out from the room holding and rubbing her right arm as she watches Isaac with a wary expression on her face, and it's then that Avery realizes Isaac must have hurt her.

Scott turns to Allison, bringing down her arm and they see bleeding claw marks. "I'm okay. I'm fine." She tells them.

"I'm sorry." Isaac whimpers. "I di- I didn't mean to do that."

Avery frowns at the way he's acting, her hands squeezing his biceps before she lets one hand travel to his chest and gently pats him there. "It's okay. It's not your fault."

"I'm okay." Allison tries to assure him but Isaac isn't having any of it.

"I'm so sorry."

Scott looks down at Isaac and for a moment, Allison thinks that he's pissed. "It's not his fault."

"I know." Scott immediately agrees with her. "I guess now we know they wanna do more than get you angry." One of Isaac's hands grips Avery's that's resting on his chest for some form of comfort while he uses the other to rake through his curls. His breathing is heavy but he's trying his best to calm down. "They wanna get someone hurt." Scott realizes.

"So are we going to do something?" Isaac finally manages.

Scott nods. "Yeah. I'm gonna get them angry. Really angry."

Scott is staring down at the ground, jaw clenched in anger as he tries to come up with a plan. Isaac still hasn't let go of Avery's hand but she isn't complaining as long as he's calming down. Through their few minutes of silence, Avery smirks with a plan in mind. "You know, if you want to get them angry, I think I may know where to hit them."

"Where?" Isaac asks, tilting his head back to peer up at her.

Avery's smirk only widens. "I don't know about them but I'm really protective of my bike."

They only have half their lunch period left so quickly filling them in on what she is thinking, Scott helps Isaac and Avery stand before they all rush outside to the student parking lot.

..

..

Scott and Avery are standing just inside their English class when Scott gets the picture text message of Isaac sitting on one of the twins' bike.

"Oohh. Send me that picture." Avery blurts when she sees it, a small grin on her face. Scott immediately turns to her, eyebrow cocked in surprised amusement and when Avery takes a moment to wonder why he's looking at her funny, she scowls at him. "Not one word, McCall."

"I didn't say anything." He defends himself with a grin. "It's just..  _wow_. Isaac, huh?"

Instead of answering him, she adjusts her binder and text book against her chest. She elbows Scott harshly in the ribs and struts forward, heels clicking against the floor before taking a seat in a desk that's close to the twins while Scott takes the seat behind her, directly next to the twins.

Aiden and Ethan stare suspiciously at Avery and Scott as the both of them grin, and then turn their attention back to Ms. Blake. Gears clink together as Scott adjusts his book bag and it's enough to catch Ethan's attention.

Pulling out a gear that the bike's chain clings to, Scott put's his pointer finger through the hole and twirls it. Now both twins are paying attention. "That looks kind of important." Scott tells them as he sets the gear down on his desk. "Avery, what do you think?"

"I don't know, Scooby." Avery playfully sighs. "Not as important as this." She says as she pulls out another similar gear and the actual chain itself, placing it atop the other gear Scott had set on his desk.

Scott, Aiden, and Ethan's attention suddenly snap towards the door and Avery guesses that they heard the motorcycle engine rev outside. And what do you know, Avery's right.

One of the twins slaps his hand against his desk, quickly standing and running for the door. "Wait, Aiden, don't!" His brother calls out.

Ms. Blake watches on in shock as her student just ups and leaves her class. Her gaze darts from the opened doorway to Ethan who's still in his seat and who looks like he's about to book it too, but then she steels her gaze and follows after Aiden.

With their teacher now gone, and the sound of a motorcycle revving in the hallway, every student jumps from their seat and swarms the hall to find the source. By the time Avery and Scott get to fiasco, the two flank either side of Isaac as Allison joins them seemingly from thin air when Ms. Blake scoffs in shock at Aiden. "You have got to be kidding me?!" She looks shocked that a student would bring their motorcycle inside and Aiden looks like the kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "You realize that this is going to result in a suspension."

Allison snorts and giggles as Avery throws her arm around the Huntress' neck in triumph, Isaac looks on proudly at having one-up'd the alphas, and Avery and Scott low-five behind Isaac's back at their victory.

Aiden and Ethan both share a stunned glance at one another before turning a murderous glare at the ones who set Aiden up. As one- Allison, Avery, Scott, and Isaac all smirk at them.

..

..

After school ends, Avery waits out by her bike for Scott. His bike is still parked next to hers and as she waits, she sees that her brother's jeep is still there too. She texts him only to find out that he's busy with Lydia and Doctor Deaton because the music teacher seems to have been taken, and whoever is doing the sacrifices is up to no good again.

She sighs, wishing that they could catch a break for at least a day or two when she notices a man with sunglasses and a walking cane walking in the school's front entrance. She doesn't pay him any mind after he disappears and is in the middle of asking Stiles if they need any help when a ferocious growl pierces the air. The hairs on the back of her neck raise and since this growl sounded more angrier, more stronger- she feels like she shouldn't seek that one out on her own. Soon after that, Scott and Isaac flee through the front entrance, Scott telling her to get on her bike as he and Isaac hop on his own, and drive home.

When getting to the Stilinski household, Isaac and Scott tell her about the twins morphing into one right there in the hallway and Deucalion mutely disciplining them before leaving without a word. And then just when they are about to relax and wait for Stiles, Avery gets a call from him telling her that he, Lydia, and Doctor Deaton figured out what was doing the ritual sacrifices.

He told them of  _Druids_  and how Druid was the gaelic word for 'Wise Oak'. Then he went on to tell them that if a Druid went down the wrong path, the Wise Oak was said to become a 'Dark Oak', also known as a  _Darach_. Deaton then came clean that if this was the working of a Darach, each grouping of three sacrifices would have their own purpose- it's own type of power from virgins, healers, philosophers, and warriors. Stiles had then figured out that music teacher had been a Soldier and Kyle- the kid who had been sacrificed and tied to the tree had been in ROTC.

So far, virgins had been sacrificed and Warriors were currently on the list. With only one Warrior left to be sacrificed, Lydia had then realized that another teacher had a Military background.

Mr. Harris.

But by the time they had made it to Mr. Harris' room, he was nowhere to be found and the grade markings on several papers spelled out 'Darach'.

Avery seems visibly shaken and after she disconnects the call with her brother, she goes on to tell Scott and Isaac everything she knew about Druids that Elijah had sent her and what it meant to be a Darach. Needless to say, they were all uneasy now.

..

..

The clouds in the sky darken quite early and after figuring out that a storm is on the horizon, the boys both leave after making sure Stiles is on his way home so Avery isn't left alone for long. The skies open up quickly after the boys leave and Avery gets to cooking a quick dinner in case the power goes out.

It isn't until the thunderstorm is over that Avery finally gets to take a shower- Stiles having made her paranoid about lightning strikes while someone's showering- so she's grateful when it all finally stops.

She's in the middle of gathering up some clothes when she hears a knock at her window. Squinting out the window, she finds Isaac sheepishly waving at her. She snorts at him, making her way to the window and quietly opens it up since her Dad is downstairs.

"Hey, what's up?"

Isaac shrugs as his eyes dart around her room. "I, uh, I wanted to let you know that I'm staying with Scott now." He tells her, his eyes downcast. "Derek kicked me out and he seemed kind of tense so yeah.. stay away from there for the time being."

"What the hell?!" Avery harshly whispers as to not draw her Dad's attention. "Why would he- what's he thinking?! The alpha pack is out there and he just kicked you out like that.." She trails off, shaking her head in disbelief. "When I see him-"

"Don't worry about it." Isaac tells her. "He cares. Trust me, he cares. And if there's anything I learned about Derek from the time I've spent with him as my alpha, he's pushing me away to keep me safe. But safe from what, I don't know."

Avery sighs and bites the inside of her cheek. "Fine." She tells him. "But just so you know, after I give him his time to reflect on his poorly made decisions, I'm gonna punch him for kicking you out when he realizes his mistake."

Isaac rolls his eyes at her, flashing her a smile as he starts to back away from her window. "You really are a Stilinski, aren't you? Stiles has a habit of threatening him, too."

Avery waits until Isaac falls to the ground before leaning out her window. "Yeah, well, it's not a threat if I actually go through with it." She mumbles and his resounding laugh lets her know that he heard her.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: You didn't think Avery would actually let it go, did you? Here's a filler chapter before we get to the more heartbreaking chapters. If you're wondering what boots she slips into, they're on Polyvore under the Chapter 8 set where it said "night shoes". I didn't make a set for this chapter since she is still in the same clothes.  
> Link for Polyvore is [HERE](http://crossxover.polyvore.com/).

After Isaac had left, Avery tried her best to abide by her friend's wish and stay away from Derek while he cooled down or did whatever it was he needed to do. She picked through her sleep clothes, found a decent shirt and shorts to sleep in, but by the time she managed to step towards the bathroom- she heaved a sigh frustration and rushed back to her room.

Dropping her clothes on her bed, she slips on a pair of boots and retrieves her daggers, shoving one in each boot before walking to her brother's room. "I'm heading to the 7-11, you want anything?"

Stiles turns to look at her, a cherry twizzler hanging from his mouth as his fingers continued to click away at his keyboard. "Nah, I'm good."

"Okay, well, can I borrow the Jeep?"

This time, his fingers do stop. "Uh, sure." His eyes dart to his desk in search for his keys. "Did something happen to your bike?"

"Slick roads." She shrugs with a grin. "I'll endanger my life by chasing after werewolves and vampires but I won't endanger it by driving on a slick road."

"Nice." Stiles snorts, fingers closing around his Jeep keys before tossing them to his sister. "Don't crash."

"Never." She sing-songs as she catches them and turns on her heel, heading downstairs.

..

..

The trip to Derek's is a lot further than that of the nearest 7-11 so she knows Stiles will be calling to see where she is at any second now. Not wanting to feel guilty and lie to Stiles about her whereabouts, she turns off her phone and leaves it in the Jeep as she makes her way to Derek's building.

Instead of doing the smart thing and taking the stairs, she risks her life by taking the creaky and rusty elevator up to the very top to cut back on some time. And by the time she makes it to the very top, she doesn't hesitate to slide open the door to Derek's loft with a grunt.

She finds Derek standing near the windows with his back to her.

"What are you doing here?"

Avery rolls her eyes at his ability to know it's already her. "You're a giant ass, you know that?" She says without answering him. "Kicking Isaac out with the alpha pack out there- not your smartest move."

"I had no choice."

"That's bullshit and you know it." Avery strolls in- stopping by the table where she, Stiles, and Peter last worked at. "You're stronger with a Pack. You can't just kick him out and-"

"You have no room to speak." A new voice enters and Avery whirls in the direction where said voice came from. There's a girl standing there, hair pulled up in a ponytail and clad in a black sports bra and black work-out capris. "What Derek does and does not do with his Pack is none of your concern."

"Are you freakin' kidding me?!" Avery scoffs at who she presumes to be Cora. After all, she looks a bit like Derek. "I might not be considered Pack like you or Isaac but at least I'm thinking at full capacity here. An alpha is at his or her strongest with a pack behind his back. If they're looking to pick off Derek, how long do you think he's going to last with his pack scattered around town?"

Cora glares at her and Derek finally manages to speak. "You don't understand. They want me to kill my pack." Cora growls lowly at the fact that Derek easily gave up information to a human. "I did what I had to do and got Isaac to safety."

Avery sighs, feeling sympathy for the alpha in front of her but Cora's growling catches her attention. "Yeah, well what about her?" She nods in the she-wolf's direction. "She's pack, is she not? Why isn't she on the streets yet?"

"I'm his sister." Cora snarls at her.

"And?!" Avery finally blows up, throwing her arms out as she whirls on Cora. She's only met the she-wolf and already she's annoyed with her attitude. "Do you really think the alphas are going to care? As long as you're considered pack, you have a target on your back just like Isaac does. And Boyd."

Cora's eyes glow an eerie yellow after the mention of Boyd's name. She growls and snaps a mouth full of fang in Avery's direction while Derek watches on, rolling his eyes at their drama.

Cora is still snarling at her, eyes glowing, and when it doesn't seem like she's going to stop and might even advance on her, Avery slowly crouches with her eyes still on wolf and grips a dagger in each hand. Derek immediately sees the daggers but he doesn't intervene since he knows that Avery is just protecting herself. Besides, it's not like his sister would attack.

The two girls face off and the second Cora finally realizes the daggers at Avery's side, her eyes glow brighter and she roars. Avery quickly stands and twirls the handles in her hands, stopping to grip them so that the blades are pointed downward. The second Cora lunges with claws, Avery sidesteps and positions her arms out in front of her, the blades by her outer forearms and dodging blows.

She really doesn't want to injure the wolf though it seems Cora is trying her hardest to injure her.

Derek immediately tenses before he runs around the table, freezing the second he sees the back of Avery's legs hit a chair which startles her. Cora sees her opening, slashes upward and catches Avery in the stomach.

Avery doesn't cry out or yelp in pain and she's not really surprised that Cora got her but when the she-wolf's claws snag in her shirt, Avery sees her opportunity and readjusts the daggers in her hand, bringing them out in front of her- one arm atop the other- and slicing outward across Cora's chest and stomach.

Cora  _does_ yelp in pain, stumbling backwards to touch at her wounds. Derek is still shocked that the two actually attacked each other and when he sees Cora gearing up from another attack, he roars. His eyes go alpha red with his fangs extended and Cora immediately freezes, shifting back to human form. When the threat is no longer, Avery relaxes and lets her arms go limp at her sides.

"Are you two crazy?!" He yells at them as he finally rushes forward and grabs his sister by her upper arm. "Avery is a friend of the Pack- not to mention protected by vampires and a hybrid." Cora's eyes subtly widen, the anger still there as she chances a look up at her brother. "She ends up severely hurt or dead and then  _we're_  all dead!" Cora opens her mouth to say something but the snarl from Derek has her snapping her mouth shut and turning her heated gaze back to Avery. "And you!" He rounds on Avery. "This is my little sister. You're not allowed to attack her."

"I didn't attack. I defended." Avery spits out, adrenaline still pumping. "Tell your little sister to keep her claws to herself and we won't have any more problems."

Derek scowls at the both of them, still angry but when his eyes dart down to Avery's stomach, she moves to cover up. "Where's my jacket? I'll be needing that so I can walk into my house without raising questions."

"Avery-"

"Don't." She seethes, cutting him off. "I'm not pack as Cora's already said and I'm not your little sister. I don't need to be babied. I can take care of myself."

Cora bristles at her words but Derek growls and grips her arm tighter as he stares down at her. His anger quickly slips into confusion as he takes in his sister's wounds that Avery inflicted upon her. "What did you cut her with? Why isn't she healing?"

Cora's angry scowl quickly darts down to her cuts, brows furrowing when she realizes she hasn't healed yet. "Did you poison the blade with wolfsbane?!" She growls as she realizes the cuts are stinging.

Avery sighs at the siblings, turning in circles in search of her belongings when she finds her jacket thrown on the sofa. She walks over and picks it up, slipping it on as Derek and Cora continue to prod at her wounds.

"Why isn't she healing?"

"I'm friends with vampires and werewolves." Avery mumbles as she zips up her jacket to hide her stomach. "Do you really think that I wouldn't befriend any witches along the way?" Both sets of eyes snap up to see Avery walking towards the door. "The blades are blessed by a High Priestess to prevent a supernatural being from healing straight away. Just be glad they're nicks and not stab wounds." She calls out over her shoulder. Before she can shut the door behind her, she looks up at the stunned siblings. "And Derek, think about what I said. It really is stupid of you to kick out your beta especially now since he's staying with Scott." And yeah, she knows it's a low blow since Stiles had filled her in one day when he told her that Scott wasn't officially part of Derek's pack because he was already an alpha of his own, or so Derek had said, even though he was still a beta. And when Derek's eyebrows raise at that bit of information, she feels a bit guilty but she needs him to open his eyes and see the bigger picture. "If you're not careful, D, Isaac might just join a new pack."

And with that, Avery shuts the door and takes the elevator back down to ground level. She doesn't bother with her phone as she gets in Stiles' jeep and heads to the nearest 7-11. She picks up a cherry slush to keep up appearances and a container of Pringles before deciding to head home.

..

..

Of course, as soon as she gets home, Stiles wonders what took her so long. She pushes pass the stinging pain in her stomach and prays that no blood is visible. She quickly lies about having had bought more snacks and eaten them before she even came home, and that was what had delayed her.

Stiles eyes her critically before shrugging and letting it go.

Once in the safety of her room, Avery makes sure to shut the door behind her and scurries to her mini-fridge. Grimacing when she feels the wounds pull, she manages to crouch down and reach towards the very back of her fridge where a hidden shelf holds vials. She quickly pulls one out, uncorks it, and downs the contents in one gulp. She gags at the taste but manages to keep it down and seconds later, she rushes to her desk and downs some of her slushie to get the taste out of her mouth.

The second her brain-freeze hits and one hand clutches at her head while the other covers her mouth, her bedroom door slams open and Stiles storms in with none other than Derek right behind him.

"Let me see it." Stiles demands, cheeks flushed in anger.

"See wha-"

"Dammit, Avery! Derek told me what happened. Now show me."

Avery narrows her gaze at Derek who doesn't look amused in the slightest. "You tattled on me? What are you, six?"

"My sister wanted to kill you." He dead-pans. "She would have killed you if you weren't skilled in fighting and since she's starting school with you, I have to inform someone of the little rumble between you so you two aren't alone when you eventually cross paths again."

"You're such a baby." Avery groans.

Stiles lunges forward, hand aiming for the zipper of Avery's jacket but she slaps his hands away. "Will you stop? I'm fine."

Derek rolls his eyes. "I can smell blood."

"Keep your nose to yourself, Sourpatch!"

"You're not fine. You got clawed by a werewolf." Stiles exasperates. "We need to clean it so it doesn't get infected and to make sure you don't need stitches."

"It's not infected and I don't need stitches. I've already taken care of it."

"Then prove it." Derek challenges her. "Show us that the wounds are okay and we'll leave you alone."

"You know, I don't think I approve of the two of you ganging up on me."

"Avery." Stiles presses.

"Okay, okay." She caves. "I don't even know why you're freaking out." She says as she unzips her jacket and slips it off. "I told you, I took care of it." Their eyes immediately fall to her stomach where blood soaked part of the white skull of her shirt and where Cora's claws ripped it open. She lifts up her shirt for them, smirking at their dumbfounded expressions when all they find is her blood-stained skin and the smooth planes of her stomach. "See? I took care of it."

"Wha- how?!" Stiles demands, his shocked gaze meeting his sister's gaze.

Avery snorts, turning to her desk and picking up the now empty vial she had drank from. "With this."

She tosses the vial to Stiles but it's Derek who catches it and examines it before sniffing curiously at it. "Blood?"

"Mhm."

"You drank blood?" Stiles' face contorts with disgust. "Gross."

"How would blood heal-" Derek stops mid-sentence, mind racing as he stares back down at the vial in his hands. "Vampire blood."

"Ding, ding, ding." Avery grins at him. "I have some stowed away for emergencies." She tells him. "And since I didn't want to worry Stiles or Scott, I drank some."

Derek tosses the vial back to her with a shake of his head. "Whatever." He says as he heads for her window. "I still have to inform Scott, Isaac, and Boyd of this. They're going to have to keep you two apart until you learn to behave in each other's presence."

"Please." Avery scoffs. "That's all your sister. I'm not looking for a fight unless it's to help take down those asshole alphas."

Derek leaves and when Avery turns her attention to Stiles, her brother immediately gathers her up in his arms. "I should be really pissed right now but I'm glad you're okay."

And wow- that kind of stung.

She almost wishes that he would be mad.

To shout at her getting into a scuffle with Cora.

To do something besides cling to her as if she's someone precious.

Out of the time that she's gotten to know her brother, she's never seen this side of him and it's actually scaring her to know someone cares this much when her life is constantly in danger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Stiles really adores his sister, huh? :)
> 
> AND I'M SO SORRY FOR THE SHORTNESS OF THIS CHAPTER! I THOUGHT IT WOULD TURN OUT LONGER :(
> 
> Please drop a review so I know what you're thinking of this all.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: Wow, this episode was all sorts of back and forth and I'm not sure I was able to pull it off in written form, since it's usually around Avery's perspective that I write.. so what I'm going to do is add in two flashbacks but that'll be towards the end. I hope you still enjoy this chapter. There are some funny bits before we get to the serious stuff.
> 
> As usual, Avery's outfit can be found [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/frayed_we_might_fall_ch/set?id=98998465).

**Frayed**

Thunder is rumbling and lightning is flashing when Finstock angrily blows the whistle. "Back in your seat!" He yells at a male student who thought it was a good idea to stand in the middle aisle of a moving bus.

Avery grins at the student's misfortune, glad that Coach Finstock has never been mean to her since she occasionally feeds him.

"Stop thinking about it, man."

"What? You're not thinking about it, too?"

Avery then turns her attention to Isaac and Boyd, the two wolves seated in front of her. When getting on the bus this morning, she made sure that Stiles and Scott saved the seat in front of theirs while she sat behind Isaac- only because they were in the middle of a discussion on who can kick whose ass between Batman and Spiderman- so she could be back and forth between the two groups.

"We'll both stop thinking about it." She hears Isaac say.

"I can't." Boyd answers and Avery wants to agree with him- that she can't get over it as well but for the sake of everyone's safety, they all need to stop thinking about it and get on with their lives until they come up with a backup plan.

Of course she knows exactly what they're talking about but talking about it- getting angry over it right now on the school bus with very human students to witness someone wolfing out- well that didn't bode well for anyone. And every time Boyd glances over his shoulder at Ethan, Avery readies herself in case Boyd were to suddenly lunge.

With Coach insisting that the entire Lacrosse team be put on track team to keep themselves in shape, Avery is just now thinking that his decision was a poorly made one.

"Well there's nothing you can do about it either." Isaac retorts and Avery is suddenly brought back to their discussion.

"You sure about that?" Boyd glances yet again at Ethan and Avery groans. Out loud.

"Oh my god. You two need to  _chill_." Boyd and Isaac both turn around, both cocking eyebrows at Avery. "It sucks, okay? I get it. But dwelling on it, especially  _here_ will help no-one."

"Yes,  _Mom._ " Isaac sarcastically rolls his eyes. "Whatever you say."

In order to lighten up the mood, Avery mock gasps and Boyd's lips twitch in amusement. Well, at least that was something. If her and Isaac's banter occupied the dark-skinned werewolf, kudos to herself. "I will cut you,  _Curly Sue_. Call me Mom one more time."

Boyd actually snorts and Isaac smirks in challenge. "Mom."

"That's it! No treats for you."

"That's not really helping you, you know? Only a Mom carries treats."

"I hear not a word you're saying, Lahey. I'm too busy digging out treats for my new favorite buddy." Avery grumbles as she digs through her duffel bag. Isaac chuckles at her, not believing she actually has treats but when she pulls out a bag packed full with slim jims, his jaw falls open. "Yeah. See! You could've had some but now, Boyd gets all the goods." Boyd turns to see what Avery is talking about and when he sees the handful of slim jims being handed over to him, he takes them with a genuine smile.

"So not fair." Isaac mumbles. "You don't even know him that well."

"Hey, Stilinski!" Danny suddenly calls out. "Don't think I don't see what you're hiding from me."

"You see nothing, Mahealani!" Avery narrows her eyes at him over her shoulder.

She gathers up her pillow and blanket, dropping a few slim jims in Isaac's lap because she was a sucker for his cheekbones before hiding her snacks and making her way towards the back of the bus. As she passes Danny and Ethan, Danny's gaze follows her and when she sits down in front of her brother and Scott, he keeps on staring. She quickly tears into her own slim jim, munching on it as she tries to pay attention to Stiles but the heat of Danny's gaze has her fidgeting. Finally snapping, Avery picks up two slim jims and launches them at him.

"Damn you and your dimples!"

"You love me." Danny laughs. "And thanks."

When Avery sits back down, she sits with her back to the window and is met with Stiles' amused snort.

"What?"

"Nothing." He shrugs as he continues to mess with his iPad. "I was just thinking the same thing. About Danny's dimples, you know. They really are irresistible."

Avery laughs, offering him a slim jim of his own before she nods in Scott's direction. "What's wrong with him?"

Scott looks pale- sick actually- and it's kind of worrisome the way he just lazily gazes out the window, slowly shutting his eyes and leaving them closed for seconds at a time. "Tired, I guess." Stiles answers. When Avery keeps her gaze on him, Stiles sees that she actually looks worried so he takes a moment to study his friend as well. "Scott? Scott!" No answer. Stiles glances at Avery and sees her worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. "Yo, Scott!" Stiles snaps his fingers by Scott's ear. "Hey! Yo, Scotty." He snaps his fingers again right before Scott looks over at him. "You still with me?"

"Yeah, sorry, what's the word?" He asks as he shakes his mind clear. "Oh, hey, Avery." He offers her a tired smile as he scratches at his eyebrow.

Stiles purses his lips together before shrugging at his sister and reading the word. "Anachronism."

"Something that exists out of it's normal time." Scott easily answers.

"Vocabulary testing? Nice." Avery manages to grin at the two of them.

"Okay, next word." Stiles slides his finger of the iPad, bringing up a new word for Scott. "Incongruous."

Scott frowns. "Um, can you use it in a sentence?"

"Yes, yes I can. It's completely  _incongruous_  that we're sitting on a bus right now on our way to some stupid cross country meet after what just happened.  _Incongruous_." Stiles sarcastically supplies.

Avery flinches at her brother's words, Scott nodding as he finally understands. "Out of place. Ridiculous. Absurd."

"Perfect." Stiles gives him a thumbs up.

"Okay, next word, um.." He trails off but Avery isn't paying attention to him anymore. Her attention is now back on Scott who keeps grimacing, leaning his head against the window as he holds his side. "Darach." Stiles finally gains their attention again. "Darach. It's a noun." He says as he looks up to find both his best friend and sister staring at him- both void of any amusement. "We have to talk about it sometime, okay? We're gonna be stuck in this thing for like five hours so why not?" Scott leans his head back on the window, staring at nothing as he blinks slowly. When Stiles gets no remark from him, he goes back to his iPad. "Next word." Stiles clears his throat. "Intransigent."

"Stubborn." Scott answers. "Obstinate." The bus hits a bump, sending everyone flying a few inches in their seat and when everyone rights themselves, Scott is groaning and clutching at his chest.

"Whoa, Scooby, you okay?" Avery says as she sits up on her knees on the seat.

Scott doesn't answer, eyes closed in pain as he groans. "We shouldn't have come." Stiles tells him when he sees his friend in pain. "I knew it. We shouldn't have come."

"We had to. There's safety in numbers." Scott finally answers.

"Yeah, well there's also death in numbers, okay? It's called a massacre." Stiles snarks. "A blood bath. Carnage. Slaughter. Butchery." Avery watches on mutely as he lists word after word. He really isn't helping the situation at all. Scott groans again and Stiles gives in. "Alright, Scott, I'm telling Coach-"

"No. No." Scott stops him from getting up. "I'm alright."

"Well you don't look alright. Just let me see it." Stiles attempts to lift Scott's shirt but Scott stops him.

"I'm okay."

"Just let me see it, okay?" And boy if Avery isn't reminded of the night Stiles bugged her about her own wound from the scuffle with Cora.

Scott finally gives in, nodding his consent as he slowly lifts his own shirt and Avery has to lean over the back of her seat to get a view. The wounds are obviously still open, blood staining Scott's skin and now even his shirt. The cuts are about half an inch deep and Avery's mind in whirling.

These should have healed hours ago.

"Aw, dude." Stiles mumbles.

"I know it looks bad." Scott says as he lets his shirt fall. "But it's because they're from an alpha. It'll take longer to heal."

Simultaneously, Avery and Stiles glance up towards Boyd and Isaac. "How come Boyd and Isaac are fine then?" Avery beats her brother to the punch.

Scott doesn't say anything as he lays his head against the window and the Stilinski twins share a brief and panicked look. "I can't believe he's dead." They hear Scott say. "I can't believe Derek's dead."

And yeah, that hurt Avery a little more than she was willing to admit.

..

..

While Scott decides to get a little bit of rest, Stiles goes back to messing with his iPad, and Avery tries to get some sleep as well. Only since the bus is moving and their driver positively sucks, she only gets a good half hour, maybe a little more, of rest.

"Two over here, back in your seats!" Finstock's sharp whistle makes Avery jump awake. "Jared? Again. Carsick. Every ti-  _how_  do you even get on the bus?" The kid in question groans- Avery looking in his direction because Finstock's interrogation is quite funny. "Look at me. No don't look at me." He quickly corrects himself. "Look at the horizon. Keep your eyes- keep your eyes on the horizon." He points out the window.

Avery grins but when she sees Finstock turn his gaze on Scott, she tries to block her friend's view by fake yawning and stretching her arms up and out. "McCall?" Finstock groans and well, so much for blocking his view. "Not you, too!"

Scott leans up with a grimace. "Um, no, Coach! I'm good." He calls out.

"Hey, Scott, you're bleeding again." Stiles then points out. "Don't tell me that it's just taking longer to heal, okay, because I'm pretty sure that still bleeding means not healing. Like at all."

Scott groans and looks up, face going grim a second later as he nods towards the front of the bus. "He's listening." Both Stiles and Avery turn their attention towards the direction Scott nodded to and find Ethan with his head cocked towards them- ear out.

"Is he going to do something?" Avery mumbles.

"Not in front of this many people."

Stiles and Avery take Scott's word for it but Stiles then zeros in his gaze on something else. "Well what about the two ticking time bombs sitting right near him?"

Avery knows who he's talking about without having to look. "They won't." Scott assures him. "Not here."

"Okay, what if they do? You gonna stop them?"

Scott nods. "If I have to."

..

..

Everyone goes back to their own thing, trying to busy themselves or regain strength for the upcoming meet. Avery is letting her iPod shuffle through a playlist she made for the trip as she closes her eyes for a minute and before she can drift off, she feels herself flying forward and bangs her head on the back of the seat in front of her.

"Ow. What the fuck!"

"Language!" Coach barks but Avery isn't paying him any attention. She sets her iPod aside as she rubs at her now sensitive forehead and when she doesn't hear her twin cackling at her misfortune, she turns only to find the both of them staring intensely towards the front of the bus.

Scott suddenly stands, eyes trained on Boyd. "Whoa. Scott, where you going?" Stiles asks.

"Boyd. He's going to do something."

Avery turns her gaze on Boyd now and sure enough, she can see his clawed hand gripping the empty seat's back in front of him. Stiles quickly stands to make room for Scott as the werewolf stumbles out into the aisle.

The injured wolf slowly makes his way forward, gripping each seat as he pushes himself towards Boyd, and Avery thinks he's about to keel over any second now. Her eyes quickly dart from Boyd and Isaac's seat to Ethan's, and she can't help but think that things are about to get very messy.

Scott's hand slams down on Boyd's seconds later and Avery releases a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. She sees Scott talking to Boyd and since Stiles has an eye on everything, she takes a moment to catch her breath and collect herself.

Her mind wanders back to  _that night_ and she has to shake her head clear. She's angry, hurt, and confused just like the rest of them and if she's being honest with herself, she also feels a little guilty. She had been there of course, after arguing with her brother about it, but she couldn't let them go in alone and she was glad she had decided to go. But now she also feels a bit responsible that she couldn't stop Derek from falling to his death.

The Hale alpha fell with Ennis in tow, the two falling from several stories high and she couldn't stop the flinch at having heard his body collide with the ground below. If Derek had lived through that, it'd have been a miracle.

Scott passes her line of vision but now she's too bummed to even care. She hears her brother ask if the crisis has been averted and when he gets his confirmation, he goes off about another problem. Avery tries to zone them out because she really can't deal with this anymore but then she hears the words  _Ethan,_ and how he's checking his phone way too much for it  _not to be about evil deeds,_ and the fact that neither her brother nor Scott like that Ethan is  _sitting with Danny._

_Now_  her interest is piqued.

Stiles wants to know what Ethan is looking at so Stiles texts Danny to find out only to be shut down repeatedly. After that, all hell breaks loose and Stiles spams Danny's phone with text message after text message after text message.

Avery has to sink down in her seat when she hears Danny's phone ding repeatedly to hide her shaking form of suppressed laughter.

And then the laughter completely ceases when she hears Scott say that Ennis is still alive. If Ennis is alive, did that mean Derek made it out too?

..

..

Avery is now back with Boyd and Isaac, going through her phone behind their seat when she hears Finstock picking on Jared once again. Apparently the kid got carsick and was on the verge of puking which didn't bode well for anyone since Coach was an empathetic vomiter. As Avery snorts and wishes she had thought of recording their Coach's musings sooner, he then goes on to tell them that no traffic jam, minor tornado warning, or Jared was going to keep them from the meet.

"Stilinski, put your hand down!"

Avery's head shoots up only to hear her brother answer back. "You know, there's like a food exit about half a mile up. If we stop then maybe the traffic might-"

"We're not gonna stop."

"Okay but if we stop-"

"Stilinski!" Finstock yells, blowing his whistle at him. "Shut it! Seriously, it's a little bus. Stop asking me questions!"

Isaac shakes his head in amusement and turns toward Avery. "Your brother just doesn't know when to quit, does he?"

"Nah. I think it runs in our blood." She chuckles.

"You think?" Boyd turns, joining in on the conversation.

Avery laughs with the two of them, setting her chin on the back of their seat. When she sees their gaze go over her head and their grins go wider, she turns and sees her brother making his way to the front, his gaze set on the Coach.

"Lord, here we go." She mumbles and quickly gets out her phone, setting it to record.

"We need to stop. I really have to go to pee." Stiles tells Finstock.

Finstock crosses his arms and shakes his head. "No."

"Coach, it's five minutes for a bathroom break, okay? We've been on this thing for like three hours-"

Finstock blows the whistle in his face.

Stiles sighs. "It's sixty miles to the next rest stop-"

Finstock blows the whistle again.

"Being cooped up for hours is not good-"

Whistle blow.

"You know, our bladders aren't exactly-"

Whistle blow.

"Coac-"

Whistle blow.

"This is fa-"

Whistle blow.

"Can you just-"

Whistle blow.

Stiles goes to say something else but Coach immediately shuts him down with yet another blow from his whistle.

"Please-"

Whistle blow.

"Let me talk, I'm-"

Coach blows the whistle and then laughs at Stiles' aggravated expression.

"Every time-"

Again the whistle sounds but last for several seconds and Stiles goes tense and annoyed. "Get back to your seat, Stilinski!" Finstock yells.

"Okay!" Stiles screams back.

Avery is laughing so hard that Isaac has to pick her phone from her hands so she doesn't drop it. Her laugh eventually goes mute, though she's practically curled on her seat, shaking with suppressed laughter and tears leaking from her eyes at her brother's attempt to stop the bus.

One second she's laughing her ass off and the next, the bus comes to an abrupt stop as everyone yelps and groans in disgust. She looks up just in time to see Stiles book it to the back of the bus and everyone glancing at Jared who's bent over his seat and puking his guts out.

The bus doors open and when Boyd stands, Avery climbs into his empty spot. "Boyd, carry me over the puke. If I even look at it again, I'm going to join Jared in redecorating the aisle."

"Really?" Boyd quirks an eyebrow at her. "You take on.. people stronger than you all the time and you're afraid of puke?"

"It's disgusting, okay? Now can I please have a piggy back ride over it?" She pouts with a frantic expression.

Boyd grins as other students start climbing over the seats to get off the bus before nodding and giving Avery his back so she can climb on. Avery whoops as Boyd carries her and laughs when he drops her off outside the bus.

"Thank you, kind sir." She curtsies at him.

Boyd chuckles and as he walks away, Isaac comes up behind her with a smirk. "I may or may not have took a picture of the big scary, bulky werewolf carrying a tiny girl on his back."

Avery throws her head back and laughs but before she can get a word out, she hears, "Jared! YOU SUCK!", and laughs even harder. Their Coach really was a trip.

Isaac laughs with her but when she catches Stiles and Allison trying to discreetly carry Scott into the bathrooms, she excuses herself from the blonde werewolf.

When she's sure that Isaac occupies himself with something or someone else, Avery rushes to the bathroom where they dragged Scott. Once inside, she finds Scott on the floor and sitting between the sinks- Allison holding up his shirt as Stiles and Lydia watch on.

"Oh my god. It's getting worse?!" Avery blanches when she sees the wound, the once bleeding red wounds now turning black. Even the veins around the would to be turning black and Avery is quickly reminded of a werewolf bite to a vampire. This almost looks exactly the same.

"Why didn't you tell us it was this bad?" Allison asks.

Scott tiredly smiles at her. "Sorry." He mumbles.

"Just give us a second, okay?" Allison tells him. She slowly stands as Scott allows his eyes to close. "This shouldn't be happening." She tells Stiles while Avery chooses to kneel by Scott, making sure he stays awake now. "I've seen him heal from worse than this."

"Okay, what do we do? Do we call an ambulance?" Stiles panics.

"What if- what if it's too late? What if they can't help?" Allison blurts.

"Well we got to do something."

"You know," Avery hears Lydia chime in with her two cents. "-it could be psychological."

"Well- what's that mean? Like psychosomatic?"

"Somatoformic." No-one says anything after Lydia's words and Avery wants to yell at them to hurry up and come up with a idea because Scott is literally getting paler by the second. "A physical illness from a psychogenic cause." Again, no-one speaks. "Yes, it's all in his head."

"In his head?" Stiles realizes. "Because of Derek! He's not letting himself heal because Derek died."

Avery sighs, head falling so that her chin is nearly tucked in to her chest. They really couldn't catch a break. Scott whimpers and Avery's head snaps up. "Uh, guys. Whatever you plan on doing, do it quickly!" She moves closer to Scott and leans in to gently pat his cheek. "Come on, Scooby. Stay awake." His eyes blink open and he feebly grins at her.

This is seriously breaking her heart.

"What do we do?" Allison then says.

Avery can hear someone rummaging through a bag and when she looks over her shoulder, Lydia is holding objects in her hands. "We stitch him up." Allison looks like it's a bad idea. "I'm serious." Lydia tells them. "Maybe all he has to do is believe it's healing."

Again, no-one says anything so Avery snaps. "Do it. Now!"

Everyone is now a blur of figures, Allison moving to kneel by Scott and starts lifting up his shirt over his head. Avery moves to give the girl her space while Lydia and Stiles watch on. Stiles then moves to get paper towels and when he kneels by Scott, Allison pulls out a needle and a lighter, burning the needle to sterilize it.

"He's gonna need another shirt. Where's his bag?" Allison asks.

"Um, I'm gonna get it." Stiles volunteers. "I hate needles anyway, so.." He gives Allison a thumbs up and disappears from the bathroom.

"Not to be a debbie downer," Avery mumbles, eyeing the needle in Allison's hand. "-but do you know what you're doing?"

"Yeah. My father taught me." She says.

"W-well how fast are you because the bus could leave."

"Then make sure it doesn't leave."

Avery opens her mouth to protest but Lydia grabs her hand. "Come on, I can help."

..

..

Lydia and Avery rush outside but when they get there, they have no idea what to do to stall the bus. Lydia suggests pouring sand in the gas tank but Avery tells her that they're trying to stall, not become stranded.

Avery then suggests that someone get Jared back on the bus to make him puke somewhere else but when Lydia tells her that she has to do it for coming up with the idea, Avery passes on it. She's a bit like Coach, an empathetic vomiter so if she sees it or hears it, she'll vomit too.

As they try to brainstorm some more, Avery catches Isaac and Boyd's curious gaze on her and when she tries to give them a reassuring smile, they each narrow their gaze suspiciously. She knows that they know something is up but they really can't risk to two temperamental werewolves to find anything out. Especially after what had happened with the alphas, Boyd and Isaac would be out for blood if they knew Scott wasn't faring well now.

Stiles makes the mistake of walking by them at that particular moment and Boyd takes the chance to grab the lithe teen and starts badgering him with question after question.

The bus is nearly cleaned out by now and Avery thinks about saving her twin from his interrogation but then she catches sight of Allison and Scott coming from the bathrooms. Heaving a sigh of relief, she and Lydia run towards them.

"Is he okay? You okay?" Lydia immediately asks and Scott nods.

"Where's Stiles?" He asks.

"Um-"

"Trying to stall Coach." Avery cuts her off.

"Al, we still don't have gas." Lydia throws in.

"I'm not leaving him.

"Then we have to leave the car."

"Sounds good."

"What? Tha- that wasn't an suggestion. Allison, wait!" Lydia tries to call her friend back as Avery and Allison help Scott walk.

"So what was keeping you from- from healing?" Avery wonders as she readjusts her grip on Scott. "Was it because of Derek?"

"He thought it was his fault." Allison fills her in.

With Avery stopping in her trek, she makes Allison stop as well, both teens turning to her. "Scott, that wasn't your fault. And if it was, then Allison and I are just as guilty."

* * *

_John was out at work again leaving Stiles and Avery the house to themselves. Scott had called them earlier in the day, telling the Stilinski twins that tonight was the night. He was going to confront Deucalion and try to make a truce or something with the elder alpha so he'd stop terrorizing their town and friends._

_Stiles deemed his idea stupid, as did Avery, but she kept her opinion to herself. Stiles then tried to marathon movies with her but as the minutes ticked away, Avery couldn't help the bouncing of her knee or the biting of her nails._

" _Don't even think about it, Avs." Stiles mumbles when he sees her glance at the clock. "It isn't our problem."_

" _Isn't it?!" She explodes, not bothering to hide the fact of what she's thinking. "He's our friend, Stiles. Knowing Deucalion, it's probably a trap. That man is pure evil."_

" _And knowing Scott, he'll take backup. Or Derek and his minions will show up and take care of it. I hope."_

" _Don't you see." Avery groans. "If you deduced that about Scott, don't you think Deucalion did too? They're going to be way in over their heads with all those alphas."_

_Stiles sighs and turns towards his sister. "All the more for you to not go. You're safer here."_

" _And how long will that last? If those alphas take down our friends, how long until they have Beacon Hills in chaos? Scott needs backup- and I'm sure Allison will be there- but two is better than one."_

" _Avs,-"_

" _I was trained for this, Stiles. I know how to be careful." She pleads, tears stinging her eyes as she pleads her case. "We're not little kids anymore, as much as everyone says we are- we're not. We're soldiers. Fighters. And while you don't have the training right now- I do. I can be of help."_

_Stiles looks at his sister, every emotion he's ever experienced running rampant all at the same time as he mulls over her words. "You call me." He caves with a determined expression. "When it's over- call me."_

" _I will." Avery sighs in relief. "I will."_

* * *

Scott and Allison look sadly over at Avery and it's then that they realize that their friend blamed herself as well. Just when Scott opens his mouth to assure her that she isn't to blame either, students rush to form a circle, and holler in delight and fear catch their attention.

Stiles suddenly makes an appearance, eyes going wide when he sees his best friend. "Stiles!" Scott calls out. "What's happening?"

"He went after him. I told him what was happening with you and he just went after him."

"Boyd?" Scott quickly glances between the Stilinski twins hurriedly. Panic flashes across his features and all of them race towards where the commotion is coming from.

"Isaac! Isaac!" Coach Finstock calls and Avery realizes that it isn't Boyd attacking Ethan, it's Isaac. Avery's eyes widen, panic bubbling in her gut as she watches Isaac throw punch after punch at Ethan's face, the alpha bleeding from his mouth and not fighting back.

Danny lunges, arms going around Isaac's waist to get him off of Ethan but Isaac easily pushes him away. "Stop!" Danny yells at him.

In Isaac's brief hesitation to throw another punch, Avery launches herself at him, putting herself between Isaac and Ethan, and putting her hands on his chest. "Isaac! Isaac, you need to stop."

His eyes look less wild and he gently shoves her aside before throwing another punch at Ethan.  _"ISAAC!"_

Scott's yell startles Isaac, the beta wolf looking up in shock at Scott being okay. The second he backs off of Ethan, Danny lunges for his friend and Avery quickly puts herself between the two again, her hands gently pushing the wolf back.

Allison, Scott, Lydia, and Stiles look on in shock at Isaac's behavior and while Avery tries to calm herself- because the fight really got her adrenaline pumping- a student next to them makes a comment about Isaac.

"That's the second time he's attacked Ethan." The dark-haired male sneers. "I didn't know we had a homophobe in our school. His bitch needs to keep him on a tighter leash."

Isaac tenses, as does Boyd and Scott who easily heard every word. Avery looks to her right, easily finding the culprit since he's staring at them with a scowl on his face. Narrowing her eyes, Avery angles her body to him. "You say that word as if it should offend it. FYI, it  _doesn't_."

The dark-haired male's companion has the decency to look sheepish at having been caught but the dark-haired guy just doesn't know when to stop. "Well in that case, maybe as his whore, you-"

_WHAM!_

The guy doesn't get to finish his explanation seeing as Avery's fist connects with his face. There's an audible  _crunch_ and  _oohh's_ coming from the crowd but Avery doesn't care. Just when she swings her arm back to strike again, Isaac catches her arm and when she glares at him for stopping her, she kicks out and catches the student in the crotch with her foot. More  _oohh's_ and now even laughter ring out and while Isaac flinches in sympathy with the guy and his hurt junk, Avery tears herself from Isaac and walks up to the guy who's breathing heavily on his knees now.

"Who's the whore now?" She murmurs.

Before she can even think about swinging again, arms wrap around her own- trapping her to keep her from doing any further damage. "That'll do, Scrappy. That'll do." Avery peers over her shoulder to find that it's Scott who's keeping her from getting into any more trouble. "You just don't know how to walk away from a fight, do you?"

Avery slowly grins at that. "I guess I don't."

* * *

_By the time Avery pulls up to the abandoned mall where everything is to take place, Allison is already heading for an entrance. The huntress catches sight of Avery, chuckling lowly and waits for her companion to catch up._

" _Couldn't stay away, huh?"_

" _Never."_

" _Good." Allison smirks while briefly hugging her. "Because all the yelling, growls, and snarls just completely stopped. I have a feeling we might be needed."_

" _Lead the way, your Highness." Avery bows, bow in hand with a quiver of arrows that she had gotten Derek to deliver to her house the day before. She and Cora still weren't allowed near each other so Derek had no other choice than to deliver._

_Once inside, Allison holds up a finger to her lips to signal that they need to be quiet. Avery rolls her eyes, she having known that since before she even showed up but lets Allison lead anyway. Allison points up and Avery nods. There were three levels to the mall and they needed to be at it's highest shooting point to have the advantage._

_By the time the girls quietly take their place, the sight below them has them having to steel themselves and prepare for a fight._

_Avery had been right. Derek ambushed Scott's talking-of-peace and Deucalion surprised them right back. It was Scott and Derek's Pack versus a group of alphas and it was no surprise that the alphas had the upper hand. One giant alpha, who Avery realizes that it's Aiden and Ethan combined, have Isaac and Scott on their knees, hands gripping the back of their necks to keep them in place._

_Ennis stood off to the side, keeping an eye on everyone while Deucalion stood like the prick he was in the middle of the escalator over all of them._

" _Kill him." Deucalion calls out causing Derek to look up in shock at him. Derek's gaze then drops to Boyd who was spitting up blood and practically crawling on his stomach as he looks up in fear at his alpha. "The others can go." Derek looks at Isaac at Scott when Aiden/Ethan made them groan in pain and then back down at Boyd who seems afraid that his alpha might actually kill him. "You're beaten." Deucalion gloats. "Do it, Derek. Take. The first. Step."_

_Avery and Allison share a panicked look, both girls readying their bows in case Derek did make a move towards Boyd. While Derek looks stricken, the female alpha scoffs. "Are we serious with this kid?" It was then that Avery notices the female alpha has her talons for toe-nails pressed against Cora's throat. "Look at him! He's an alpha?" She huffs sarcastically. "To what? A couple of useless teenagers?"_

" _Some have more promise than others." Deucalion tells her, his gaze turning towards Scott._

" _Let him rise to the occasion, then. What will it be, Derek? Pack," She looks at Boyd. "-or family?" She presses down harder on Cora's throat._

_Cora yelps in pain as her throat is being crushed and Avery sets her eyes on the female alpha. She and Cora might not have started off on a good note but she was not about to let them kill Derek's little sister right in front of him. As she sets up to shoot, she watches as Allison points her arrow towards the alpha holding Isaac and Scott._

_They wait patiently, waiting to see what Derek is going to choose and if they had to change target at the last second, they would. Derek contemplates his answer, looking between both beta wolves- Boyd and Cora- before looking down at the ground. When he takes too long to answer, Allison releases a breath and lets her arrow fly._

_The arrow sounds like a whistle- alerting the wolves of it's presence and Derek ducks just as the arrow flies over his head- the arrow hitting it's intended target of the twins' alpha form. Avery grins, letting her arrow fly and hers purposely hits the ground right behind the female alpha, startling her to shield her eyes and stumble back off of Cora._

_The alphas starts to cover their eyes, giving Boyd and Cora a chance to crawl away and out of the crossfire. "Your eyes! Cover your eyes!" They hear Deucalion call out._

_Avery and Allison both shoot an arrow in front of Ennis, making the alpha crouch and cover before shooting more towards the female who Avery finally remembered that they called Kali._

_Arrow after arrow whistles at it's target, Allison and Avery smirking at the chance to have the werewolves at a disadvantage given how sensitive their eyesight is._

_Arrow after arrow explodes with a flash and when everyone is dazed enough, Allison and Avery let up. They both see Scott look up, his eyes finding them at the top of the third level, both girls smugly staring back at him._

_Scott suddenly leaps to his feet, Isaac slowly regaining his balance when Scott and Ennis catch each other's gazes. Allison sees what's going on, trying to ready another bow but Avery stops her. Derek jumps back into the fray, helping Cora and Boyd get away from everyone as Allison and Avery watch as Scott and Ennis growl, challenging each other before Scott takes off at a run. Avery's eyes widen, not believing that Scott challenged him and Ennis charges at the younger beta._

_Shoulders collide and it's like two boulders clashing. Ennis falls to the ground as Scott slides backward on one bended knee, his claws digging into the concrete to slow him down._

_Scott then looks up but his eyes aren't yellow. They're red. Alpha red._

_Allison and Avery gasp, looking at each other in astonishment but when they look back down at Scott, his eyes are yellow once again._

_While Ennis tries to challenge Scott again, Derek swoops in and attacks from the back. Avery and Allison run around the top floor, both girls trying to get a better angle to shoot should they need to step in again._

_Ennis and Derek go head to head- alpha against alpha- while Scott pathetically scoots and practically bear crawls his way towards them. They're on the edge of the second floor when Scott pushes himself forward- swiping at Ennis' right calf. His claws rip into flesh, catching Ennis off guard and sends him tumbling over the edge.. taking Derek with him._

" _Nooo!" Avery screams in horror._

_It happens almost in slow motion, Derek's eyes catching hers before he looks back at Scott, plummeting to the ground below. Scott watches on in shocked horror, moving forward as if he could help but it's too late. Everyone hears the impact, Avery and Allison flinching at the sound, and when Avery makes a move to run and help, Allison catches her by the shoulder._

" _It's too late."_

" _No-.. no." Avery shakes her head. "He's an alpha! There might be something we can-"_

" _Avery!" Allison raises her voice a little. "It's done. That was too far of a drop."_

" _But.. but it's Derek." Avery's voice comes out small. "He's my friend, Alli. I want to help. I_ need _to help. If we hadn't shown up then maybe-"_

" _Don't." Allison shakes her head furiously. "Don't start blaming yourself. If we hadn't shown up, either Boyd or Cora would be dead right now. Derek wouldn't have wanted that."_

_Avery turns back to where Isaac is pulling Scott back from the edge. "Let's go then. The others are going to be livid if they find us up here."_

_Allison smiles sadly at her before taking one last look where her friends stand, grabbing Avery by the wrist and running for safety._

* * *

Everyone stands by the bus while Jared finishes cleaning up his mess and the kid Avery had beaten up is complaining to their Coach.

"Are you not going to do anything?" He asks, holding a paper towel to his bloodied nose while pointing furiously at Avery.

"Uh, no. No." Finstock shakes his head. Avery snorts at the furious look on the guy's face, leaning her head on her brother's shoulder. "You provoked her and she kicked your ass in retaliation. Suck it up, Jefferson!" Allison and Lydia don't bother to hide their amused grins nor do Stiles, Isaac, Scott, and Boyd. "Alright." Coach claps. "Everyone, on the bus! We have a meet to get to."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for any mistakes.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: Um, prepare for the feels? I've never written anything super emotional or traumatizing so this is a first for me. We find out Avery's secret so.. be prepared.

**Motel California**

Once everyone is settled back on the bus, Avery keeps her seat behind Boyd and Isaac seeing as Allison and Lydia ditched their car, and are now sitting with Scott and Stiles. From her seat behind the two wolves, she can see Lydia and Stiles with their heads together and talking. She briefly wonders what they're talking about but since she's exhausted and needs her rest for the meet, she texts them to see what's going on.

Apparently, they've come to the conclusion that a dark druid, a Darach, is behind the sacrifices/murders and then Lydia eagerly supplies her knowledge about how some ancient cultures sacrifice people in preparation for battle. Stiles then comes to the conclusion that the dark druid is also working  _against_  and not with the alpha werewolves so things are inevitability about to get very real- very soon.

A war was on the horizon.

..

..

Night quickly falls upon them and Avery knows something is wrong. They should have been at their meet long ago and not coming to a stop at a sketchy looking motel called the Glen Capri. Coach Finstock practically flies off the bus, heading towards the main office of the place.

Avery follows Isaac and Boyd off the bus, coming to a stop right outside the vehicle where Lydia and Allison stand huddled together- all of them frowning up at the place that they are most likely about to sleep in.

Scott and Stiles soon exit the bus, Scott looking up at the place in false interest. "Uh, I've seen worse." He supplies in hopes of easing his friend's worries.

Both Avery and Stiles snort. "Where have you seen worse?"

Coach then appears and blows his whistle, cutting off whatever answer Scott was about to come up with. "Listen up! The meet has been pushed to tomorrow." He tells them, numerous room keys hanging from his hand. "This is the closest motel with the most vacancies and least amount of good judgment when it comes to accepting a bunch of degenerates like yourselves." Avery chuckles, hiding her amusement behind Isaac when Coach narrows his eyes at her. "You'll be pairing up so choose wisely." He holds out the keys to them as a few eager beavers snatch up some keys. "And since there's an odd number of you, one room will have three people in it."

"I call it!" Avery suddenly shouts, moving forward and daring anyone to fight her on it. "I'll bunk with two other people." She tells Coach as her eyes slide over to Allison and Lydia- letting him know that she already had a group in mind.

"Alright, well, you can bunk with your brother and his friend." Coach nods. Avery slumps at being denied the chance to room with her girl friends as Coach calls out to the rest of the students. "And I'll have no sexual perversions perpetrated by you little deviants. Got that? Keep your dirty little hands to your dirty little selves!"

Everyone is grabbing up the remaining room keys from him and when Stiles moves to grab one, Avery catches him by the hood of his thin jacket. "But Coach," Avery says sweetly making Finstock suspiciously narrow his eyes at her. "-do you really want the Stilinski twins rooming together. Who knows what kind of mayhem we're going to cause." And simultaneously, Avery and Stiles grin innocently up at him, their grins growing into something far more creepier than innocent.

Coach visibly pales, his eyes darting over their shoulders. "Alright. Fine. Fine! You can room with whoever." He waves her off. "Just don't set the room on fire or anything."

Avery beams. "Thanks, Coach! And don't worry, if I set anything on fire, I'm eighty percent sure I know how to use a fire extinguisher."

Coach balks at that but Avery is already skipping towards Allison who's openly laughing and Lydia who's staring up shakily at the motel. "Lydia?"

"I don't like this place." Their friend says, eyes darting over the motel.

Allison turns to take another look at it. "I don't think the people who own this place like this place." She chuckles. "It's just for a night."

"A lot can happen in one night." Lydia murmurs.

Avery gulps, her arms breaking out with goosebumps at Lydia's matter-of-fact tone.

..

..

Walking into the room, the three girls drop their bags on the red carpeted floor.

"I can't believe we're actually sleeping here." Lydia groans.

"You only have yourselves to blame." Avery sing-songs as she takes in Allison and Lydia's look of disgust for the room. "If you wouldn't have stalked Scooby and his gang-"

"Then Scott wouldn't have been healed." Allison cuts her friend off.

"True." Avery shrugs. "But still. Your faults. Don't complain." She chuckles. "So who am I bunking with? Just an FYI, I'm a clinger when I sleep."

"You're with Allison." Lydia dead-pans. "I only cuddle after sex."

Avery snorts at Lydia's bluntness, moving towards the bed that Allison pointed to and drops on her back. "I don't even have a comeback for that."

Allison laughs as she bends down to dig through her bag for clothes. "I'm going to take a shower so you two play nice."

"Always." Avery yawns.

As Allison heads for the bathroom, Lydia scowls as she walks around the room, checking her bed to make sure it's decent enough for her. Moments later, Allison comes back out from the restroom.

"Can one of you go see if the lady at the desk has other towels? These in here smell funny."

"Sure. Why not." Lydia sighs. "It's not like I have anything better to do."

Avery watches as Lydia gathers up their towels, sniffing them before pulling back and grimacing. "Oh, I'm definitely changing these out." As she makes her way to their room door, she looks back at Avery. "Coming?"

"Yeah. I'll be down in a bit."

Lydia nods, walking out their room to most likely raise hell if she doesn't get any new towels. Avery relaxes on the bed, closing her eyes for a bit before dragging herself up and heading out of the room to make sure Lydia doesn't cause anyone too much grief. By the time she steps out of her room, Boyd brushes passed her, gaze set forward and almost as if he's walking in a trance.

"Hey, Boyd? You alright?" Boyd doesn't answer- walking up to his room and entering without a word. "I'll take that as a maybe." She mumbles to no-one in particular.

Walking down the set of stairs to ground level, Avery catches her brother sneaking snacks out of a vending machine with a broken glass front. "Ooh, see-"

"Ahh!" Stiles yelps.

"-if they have any corn-nuts." She muses. "I'm just going to pretend I didn't hear your girl-ish scream." She grins as Stiles clutches at his chest, sunflower seeds and peanut butter crackers pressed between his torso and arms.

"Y-yeah. You do that." He gulps and starts to walk to the stairs.

Stiles glares at her as he keeps glancing over his shoulder, treats pressed to his chest as Avery laughs at him. Once he disappears into his room, Avery shakes her head in amusement and continues on towards the main office.

Stepping into the room, there's an elderly plump lady behind a desk and window , laughing manically with a stoic Lydia. "H-hey, is everything okay?"

Lydia turns slowly, eyes wide with disbelief. "Mhm." She licks her lips nervously. "This nice lady was just sharing a morbid fact with me about this place."

"Really? Like what?" Avery skips forward into the room, eyes darting down to a breathing tube that's stuck in the lady's throat, and offering her a smile.

"Oh just that this place has the highest number of guest suicides." Lydia blurts and Avery's smile completely falls. "Yeah, they keep track." She says. "It's up in the triple digits right now. In fact, that's how many there are. One hundred and ninety-eight." Lydia's eye twitches as she points above the clerk's head to a board with red numbers.

"And counting." The lady teases in an off-like manner.

Avery's gaze snaps down to the woman, her eyes slightly widening before she blindly reaches out for Lydia's hand. "Wow." She gulps and plasters on a fake smile. "That's, uh, neat? But, uh, I think we're fine with these towels. Come on, Lydia." Avery urges her friend as they collect their towels and nearly run out of the main office.

Once out of earshot and the lady's vision, Avery drops Lydia's hand. "What the fuck was that?!"

"I told you I didn't like this place." Lydia grimaces, eyes darting all around. "This place feels wrong."

"Yeah, well, there's nothing we can do about it now. We're stuck here." Avery starts walking towards the stairs. "Let's just deal."

..

..

The girls get back to their room, both of them rushing inside after what just went down. Lydia hurriedly locks their door while Avery settles on the bed when the bathroom door opens and both girls shriek in fright.

"Jesus." Allison laughs as she towel-dries her hair. "What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong? What's wrong?!" Avery yelps. "What's wrong is that the lady in charge of this dump just so kindly informed us that this place has nearly two hundred suicides! She seemed proud of it- that's what's wrong!"

Allison's eyes drift over to Lydia in shock for confirmation and Lydia slowly nods. "One hundred and ninety-eight."

"A hundred and ninety-eight!" Allison repeats.

"Yes." Lydia sighs. "And we're talking forty years. On average that's four point nine five a year which is.. actually expected." She shrugs. Allison puts on a shirt, walking over to her bag while Lydia keeps on going. "But who commemorates that with a framed number? Who does that? Who?!"

Allison turns to face her friend. "All suicides?"

"Yes." Lydia answers. "Hanging. Throat-cutting. Pill popping. Both barrels of a shotgun in the mouth suicides. I don't know about you.. but me, I-" She trails off, tilting her head to the side as she licks her lips and blinks repeatedly. "Did you guys hear that?"

Avery perks up, eyes darting around the room. "Hear what?"

Lydia remains quiet, eyes darting from side-to-side as if she's intently listening to something. Slowly but surely, she turns her head, and peers over her shoulder at an air vent towards the ceiling of their room. She stands, tilting her head curiously to the side and steps up on the bed, shoes and all.

Allison and Avery look at each other, eyes wide as both girls start to chew nervously on their bottom lips, wondering what the hell is going on.

Lydia walks forward on the bed, face tilting up towards the air vent before shakily gasping out an, "Oh my god."

"Lydia?" Allison slowly moves forward now.

The room remains quiet, Lydia silently freaking out until she suddenly jumps as if startled, walking backward as her hand flies up to her mouth. "What is it, Lydia? What happened?" Avery moves to console her friend.

"Didn't you two hear that?!"

"Hear what?" Allison shakes her head.

Lydia gasps, face horrified. "The two people in the other room. They shot each other." She says as she hurriedly runs to the door, leaving behind a confused Allison and Avery in her wake.

Moments later, Allison and Avery follow. "Lydia." Avery calls out, watching her friend come to a stop at the door next to their room.

Lydia pushes the door open, revealing a darkened room and calls out a shaky, "Hello?" With no answer, she reaches inside and finds a light switch, flicking it up and down but there's no power. She shakily pants, slowly creeping into the room.

"Lydia?" Allison whispers after her friend. "What are you doing?"

Lydia gets further into the room as she blindly reaches around her. "Hello?" She tries again. And once again, there's no answer but the redhead does find a light source and clicks it on.

The walls of the room are covered in plastic, the floor having a cloth-like canvas covering it while paint buckets are scattered about. A small ladders sits off to the side with a whole bunch of construction materials strewn around the room.

"It had to be right here." Lydia states. "It was a guy and a girl, and.. they sounded younger but they were here." She says matter-of-factly.

Allison nods and steps toward their friend. "I believe you. After everything we've been through, I believe you."

Lydia's eyes then travel to Avery who grins at her. "I've seen weirder. If you say you heard it, you heard it." Avery assures her.

Lydia sighs, eyes flickering around the room. She tiredly turns around, her gaze catching something on the back wall and steps towards it. While Allison's looking around the room, Avery is carefully watching Lydia who's now nearly nose to nose with the wall. Whatever her friend is seeing, it isn't good.

"C-come on." Avery reaches out to Lydia, placing a hand on her friend's shoulder. "Let's get back to our room."

Lydia numbly nods and lets her friends lead her away. The second they step out of the creepily vacant room, they hear a clatter in the parking lot, and all three of their heads whirl in it's direction. They see Boyd stumbling back, an ice bucket at his feet as he turns tail and runs for the stairs.

"Boyd?" Avery calls out but the dark-skinned beta doesn't hear a word and keeps on running. "Boyd!" She tries again but he's already at his room and locking himself inside. "Huh." She huffs. "He's been acting weird since earlier. I wonder what happened?"

Lydia scoffs after watching Boyd pull his disappearing act and stomps towards their room, throwing their door open and waiting for her friends to follow. "You know, there's something seriously wrong with this place." She says as she starts picking up little items that she had unpacked earlier. "Okay, guys, we need to leave."

"But they were suicides, not murders. And it's not like this place is haunted, right?" Allison tries to reason with Lydia.

"Maybe it is." Lydia sighs. "You know, I bet that couple made their suicide pact in that very same room. Maybe that's why they're renovating! Maybe they've been scraping brain matter off the wood paneling."

"Oh man, that's kind of sick." Avery groans. "I mean I've seen worse, sure, but making people sleep in the same room that someone's taken their life in? That's pretty fucked up."

Allison agrees. "Maybe we should find out."

"Oh yes and with what wi-fi?" Lydia huffs as she crosses her arms. "I doubt google can help us right now."

Allison looks crestfallen and at the same moment, Avery perks up. "Aha! I'm on it. Shh." She holds up a finger to signify they remain quiet as she digs out her phone, speed-dialing before clicking over to speaker mode. "Don't talk unless I give permission."

Normally, Lydia would have come back with a smartass comment but the second that the dialing rings fill the silence of their room, she hurriedly takes a seat next to her friend while Allison kneels in front of them.

" _This better be important, love. I was in the middle of a snack."_  A dazzling British voice answers and Avery has to hold back a grin at Allison's subtle widening of her eyes.

"Okay, so I'm sorry I didn't tell you before but long story short, my life is still clouded by supernatural forces and I need your research skills." Avery quickly blurts, biting her lower lip as Allison and Lydia quirk amused eyebrows at her.

" _What?"_ And boy, he did not sound happy.

"See, Nik?" Avery whines. "This is why I don't tell you things like I tell 'lijah. You get pissy way too fast but if it helps any, being surrounded by supernatural beings is completely not my fault. You see, my sweet innocent brother-" Lydia and Allison both snort and Avery glared at them because she just knows he heard them. "-seems to be a beacon for all things supernatural."

" _Of course he is."_ Nik drawls.

"Well his best friend is a werewolf." Avery says at the same time she holds up a finger to her lips to silence the girls. The last thing she needed was for Nik to find out just  _how many_  werewolves were really around. "But anyway, that's not what I need your help with. Scooby is perfectly fine and easily handled during a full moon."

Nik sighs on the line.  _"You named your brother's best friend?"_

"Don't say it like that." Avery grins. "You make it sound like I named a dog."

" _Well technically-"_

"Shove it, Nik. Will you help me or not?"

" _Sure. What do you need?"_ He chuckles.

"Okay, well, I'm currently staying over night in a motel because I have a track meet tomorrow but there's something wrong with this motel." Avery tells him. "My friend, who has an affinity for the weird, has been hearing things."

" _When you say an affinity-"_

"I'm not a physic, if that's what you're implying." Lydia snaps. "I just know when something's not right."

" _Ooh, feisty."_

"You have no idea." Avery mumbles with a roll of her eyes. "Anyway, the name of the motel we're staying in is called the Glen Capri. Just look for anything weird that has happened in this place that would attract the paranormal."

" _Define weird, love."_

After a beat of silence, she answers with, "Suicides. I think Lydia is hearing their echoes. Just call me back if you find any suicides that have taken place here. Especially if you run across one that involves two- possibly teenagers- pulling a Romeo and Juliet in room 217."

Nik sighs on over the phone.  _"Only you would move to have a better life only to end up right back in the middle of it all."_

"Yes, well, I'm a Stilinski. It runs in the blood. Trust me."

" _Always have, love. Talk to you soon. Goodbye, girls."_

"Bye!" All three of them sound and Avery hangs up before Nik can question who the third person is.

"Well, now I guess all we have to is wa-" A blood curling scream cuts Avery off, Allison and Lydia jumping at the suddenness of the outburst. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me." She groans.

Allison quickly scrambles for the door, throwing it open and stepping outside- Avery and Lydia not far behind. By the time they're outside though, the scream has completely gone silent.

"That's it." Lydia huffs angrily. "We are talking to management to see what the hell is going on."

Her friends don't stop her, both of them silently marching behind Lydia, both of them knowing they can't stop her once she's on a mission. They make their way to ground level- all three of them marching to the office lobby. Once inside, all three groan. The creepy lady is nowhere to be found.

"Well there goes that." Lydia rolls her eyes.

Avery sighs along with her friend but Allison is staring behind the desk. "Didn't you say the sign said one ninety-eight?" She asks, face pale.

Lydia and Avery both turn to the sign, the three digits now reading two hundred and one.

"It was one ninety-eight." Avery mumbles and Lydia nods along in agreement. "I swear to God it was one ninety-eight."

"Okay. W-what does that mean? That there's been three more suicides?"

"Or three more about to happen." Lydia gulps.

Avery swears. "What the fuck are we supposed to do now?" Allison and Lydia look expectantly at her. "W-well don't look at me! Stiles is the brains between the two of us."

"Well then we tell Stiles." Lydia states determinedly. "Come on, let's go."

As the girls hurry back to their room, Lydia texts Stiles to meet them in their room. They only have to wait a few minutes before Stiles knocks and swiftly enters, taking in everyone's freaked expressions. Lydia tells him of the voices she'd been hearing and then Avery explains how Boyd was acting odd- like he was physically present but not mentally. Stiles then agreed with her, saying that he had witnessed Boyd put his fist through the glass of the vending machine and Allison shares how Scott was acting off as well.

Lydia blames the motel as she digs through a nightstand, pulling out a bible and proclaiming that if they didn't leave soon then someone needed to perform an exorcism on the motel before the werewolves went crazy and killed them all. Stiles gets her to calm down for a bit, looking to them with a grim expression and telling them that if the number in the office went up by three that maybe the three sacrifices this time were meant to be werewolves.

Allison comes up with the names of Scott, Isaac, and Boyd- and Avery's stomach drops. Stiles thinks they were meant to be there all along and Lydia freaks, saying that's exactly why they needed to leave.. and  _now_. Stiles looks at her, his gaze falling to the bible she's still holding. When he snatches it from her and opens it up while shaking it, pieces of articles fall from within the pages.

Articles of all the suicides that had taken place within the very same room they're standing in.

Avery and Allison then realize that if every room had a bible then every bible would have articles in them if someone committed suicide in that very room. Especially the room where Lydia had heard the echoes of the teenagers taking their lives.

Stiles suddenly lunges for the door, everyone following and running next door to the room they had been in early but when Stiles attempts to enter, the door is locked. Avery and Lydia claim the door hadn't been locked before and when Stiles turns to run and get the key for the room, the sound of some machinery comes to life from within the room.

"I'm not the only one who heard that, am I?" Lydia squeaks.

Avery tilts her head to the side as she tries to make out what the sound is. "It sounds like someone turned the handsaw on."

"Handsaw?!" Stiles reappears behind the girls, looking at the door and pushing the girls aside as he uses his shoulder to break the door in- all of them falling in behind him.

Ethan stands in the middle of the room, shirt wide open as he holds the handsaw above his head in a dazed state before bringing it down towards his stomach.

"Hey. No, Ethan, don't!" Stiles shouts.

Avery clenches her eyes shut, not wanting to see the alpha mutilate himself and misses when Stiles throws himself at the alpha to wrestle the handsaw away from him. Lydia quickly finds the plug, unplugging the machinery and when the blade slows it's spinning, Avery finally looks up.

Allison moves to help Stiles stand from where he had fallen and watches as Ethan flicks his claws out, a dazed yet terrified expression taking over his features. He crosses his arms over his bare stomach and attempts to claw himself.

This time Avery, Allison, and Stiles all launch themselves at the alpha- Allison and Avery taking one of Ethan's arms as Stiles takes the other- all three of them stopping the werewolf from harming himself. Ethan screams and groans as he struggles, all four of them stumbling back and forth before Ethan gets shoved forward, his hands colliding with the top metal plate of a space heater.

Ethan screams in agony as his hands quickly heal and looks up at the four humans in the room with a shocked expression. "What just happened?"

When no-one answers, Ethan books it from the room with Stiles hot on his trail. As they all follow Ethan back to ground level, they all learn that the alpha had no idea what he was doing. He had no recollection of getting into that room and when Ethan doesn't offer up anything else before disappearing into his room, Allison makes plans to go grab Scott while the other three grab Isaac and Boyd.

Avery then learns that the Beacon Hills gang had been through something similar before when Stiles keeps curiously staring at Lydia. The fiery red-head snaps, asking what Stiles' problem is and he reminds her of the time she was under Peter's control, and poisoned them all with wolfsbane.

Lydia had no recollection of said memory so Stiles fills them both in about the party and everyone hallucinating while Lydia kept making sure to refill everyone's cup numerous of times before disappearing. That then led Lydia to accuse Stiles of accusing her for being behind tonight's events but Stiles replies with that he wasn't saying it was her- it was just that the circumstances were similar.

"Lydia, I'm sorry, okay? Look, I didn't mean that you're trying to kill people, okay?" Stiles pleads as he and Avery trail behind their angry friend. "I jus- I just meant that maybe- _maybe_  you're somehow involved in getting people to kill themselves, you know? Which now that I say that out loud, it just sounds really terrible so I'm just gonna stop talking."

"Stiles." Lydia calls out as she stops suddenly, head tilting to the side as if listening to something. "Do you hear that?"

"Again?" Avery whimpers as she hugs herself. "We're not even in a room!"

"What?" Stiles glances around the empty parking lot as Lydia continues staring forward at nothing in particular.

Avery wraps her arms around herself tighter, praying that the night would hurry up and end. Vampires and werewolves were one thing but echoes that were strong enough to control a werewolf..  _so not her thing._  This was actually kind of scary especially after Ethan just attempted to gut himself and then had no recollection of it.

Lydia looks down, Stiles and Avery following her gaze to a metal grate over what was probably the sewer. Slowly falling to her knees, Lydia places her hands on the ground and leans down with her ear practically touching the grate.

"Lydia, what do you hear?"

"A baby crying." She answers Stiles. "I hear.. I hear water running." Avery looks around, trying to hear what her friend is hearing but she has no such luck. "Oh- oh my god." Lydia suddenly cries. "She's drowning the baby!" Avery and Stiles' eyes both widen as Lydia shoots up to her feet. "Someone's drowning!"

"W-what? Who?!"

"Stiles!" Avery suddenly grasps his arm. "Allison went for Scott which only leaves Boyd and Isaac. They're both in the same room."

Without second guessing it, the three teens run for the stairs that would take them to the second level of the motel. They quickly run up them, Stiles leading the way as he opens the door and nearly falls into Boyd and Isaac's room. The room is empty but the opened bathroom door catches their attention so they head in their.

Sure enough, Boyd is submerged beneath the water in the tub, a safe sitting atop his chest to hold him under. Or to make sure that no-one removed it seeing as he is more than likely capable of lifting it off of himself.

Stiles lunges into the room, Avery and Lydia on his tail, as Stiles immediately tries to remove the drain plug from the tub.

"He blocked it. He blocked the drain." Stiles panics when he realizes they aren't going to be able to drain the tub of water.

Lydia gasps. "What do we do?"

"Here. Help me." Stiles says as he attempts to lift the safe from Boyd's chest.

Avery and Lydia quickly join in, all of them fitting their fingers beneath the safe to lift it.

It doesn't even budge.

"Come on!" Avery screams. "Boyd. Boyd, don't do this!"

They all struggle- Stiles and Lydia glancing worriedly at Avery when she keeps muttering pleas for Boyd to snap out of it.

"Is he dead? How long can werewolves stay under water?"

"You think I know that?!" Stiles groans as they struggle to move the safe.

"N-no more than seven minutes." Avery squeaks. "Fuck!" She then screams when her fingers slip and she tumbles backwards, falling on her ass.

"It's too heavy!" Stiles finally admits defeat, standing up and walking backwards. "Ow!" He shouts when his bare forearm collides with the heater in the bathroom wall. Stiles looks at the heater before letting his gaze drift back to Boyd. "Wait a second. The heater." He realizes. "Ethan came out of it when he touched the heater."

"What?" Avery sighs in frustration.

"It's heat. Heat! Fire." Stiles tells them. "Heat does it, alright? We need something-"

"He's under water!" Lydia grits out.

"Yeah, I'm aware of that."

"W-w-wait. Wait. The bus." Lydia looks up Stiles. "On the bus, they'll have emergency road flares. T-they have their own oxidizers. They can burn under water."

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. Go!" Lydia screams at him.

Stiles flees from the room as Lydia tries one more time to heave the safe off by herself but it doesn't work. Avery, not being able to continue to watch Boyd peacefully drown, backs out of the bathroom. Lydia follows, both girls not being able to do anything else for the werewolf. As Avery worries her bottom lip, her eyes finally flit around the room.

The impeccably clean and untouched room.

While there were two gym bags by the room door, both beds are made but they only found Boyd. Suddenly realizing they had a missing werewolf, not to mention a werewolf who she's quite fond of, Avery starts darting around the room- looking for clues to Isaac's whereabouts.

"Avery, what are you-" A soft whimper cuts Lydia off, both girls freezing as their gazes drop to one of the beds when they hear someone sniffle.

The girls both share a look, Avery taking the lead as she slowly gets down on her knees and shakily reaches a hand out to lift the hanging sheet on the bed. Once up, she leans down and peers beneath the bed where a frightened Isaac is curled up and shivering. Isaac's head suddenly snaps up, eyes wide with fright when he sees Avery there.

Without saying a word, he reaches out and latches onto Avery's arm, pulling her to fall flat against the floor before yanking her beneath the bed with him.

"Avery?!" Lydia yelps.

"I-I'm fine." Avery stammers out. "It's just Isaac. He's scared. I think he's hallucinating. Just wait for Stiles."

"Sshh." Isaac murmurs. "H-he's going to hear you. Can't l-let him find y-you."

"Definitely hallucinating." Avery calls out.

When Stiles footsteps pound into the room, Isaac pulls her tighter to him, her head tucked beneath his chin with one of his hands pressed against her back to keep her close. Avery lets him hold her, not wanting to upset the werewolf and risk him lashing out. She listens as Lydia tells her brother how to light the flare and a few seconds later, she hears a loud crash followed by a furious roar.

At least Boyd was still alive.

Moments later, she hears footsteps get closer to her so she's pretty sure Lydia pointed out their location and sure enough, when light filters in beneath the bed, she hears her brother say, "Hey, Isaac. I got something here for ya."

The light beneath the bed suddenly turns red and Avery tenses. Isaac growls in pain, gripping her tighter before he snaps out of, breathing heavily. "W-what happened?"

"Long story." Avery mumbles into his chest. "We'll explain later."

Isaac nods, letting her go as Stiles starts to tug her out. When they're both standing, Isaac and Boyd both share confused glaces at each other before the humans lead them out of the room. That's where they find Allison who says she still can't find Scott and yeah, that isn't good.

As Avery, Stiles, Allison, and Lydia start to walk downstairs- Isaac and Boyd stay on the second level, leaning against the railing to clear their heads.

"It's happening to him too, isn't it?" Stiles suddenly blurts.  _Him_ meaning Scott.

"It has to be." Lydia answers. "Wait, didn't you say there was another flare on the bus?"

"Yeah. I'll get it."

The foursome's feet finally meet pavement, Stiles halting the group in their steps. They just found Scott. Scott who is holding an active flare in one hand while his entire body, hair included, drips with water. But when the group looks around, they realize it isn't water at all.

An empty gas can sits only a few feet from where Scott stands.

"Scott?" Allison softly calls out as she creeps closer. "Scott?" She tries again when she gets no response.

All four of them move around so that they are now in front of Scott's vision. He looks lost and defeated, and Avery's terrified that he's going to drop the flare at any second now. Tears immediately swim in all their eyes as they watch their friend contemplate ending it all right before their eyes.

Allison, Avery, Stiles, and Lydia all glance worriedly at one another- Avery catching sight of Isaac and Boyd who finally spots them in the parking lot. She sees Isaac immediately perk up, he and Boyd curiously zoning in on them when they suddenly start running for the stairs. Avery catches Isaac's eyes the second they hit ground level and shakes her head at him, trying to mutely tell him to not get closer.

Isaac catches on to the seriousness of the situation, grabbing Boyd by the shoulder to pull him back.

"There's no hope." Scott suddenly croaks.

"What do you mean, Scott?" Allison tries to offer him a comforting smile though Avery could hear the shakiness of her voice. "There's always hope."

"Not for me." Scott frowns. "Not for Derek."

"D-Derek wasn't your fault, remember?" Avery slowly takes a step forward and stands next to Allison. "It was none of our faults. You told me that."

"Every time I try to fight back it just gets worse. People keep getting hurt." Scott goes on as if he didn't hear a word Avery said.

"S-Scott.  _Scooby_." Avery's voice cracks. "Come on, man, look at me." She waits until Scott meets her gaze, the tears in her eyes falling from where they had gathered on her bottom lashes. "Don't do this. Just like Allison said, there's always hope." She pleads and Scott starts to shake his head back and forth as if denying it but Avery stops him. "Take me, for example." Her bottom lip trembles, the tears gathering more quickly now. "I-I wanted to die, too, okay? During that night in the alley." She tells him, willing him to remember as Scott's brows furrow in confusion and Avery takes another step forward. "I know you and Derek smelled it that night I told you all about how I met Elijah and Nik. I know you smelt how frightened I was when Stiles wanted the whole story. How you must have caught the scent of disgust I felt with myself when I recalled the memory of that stranger ripping my clothes off of me before I masked it with fear." Avery hears sharp intakes of breath behind her and she doesn't even want to see Isaac or Boyd's reaction because Scott is her main priority right now. "I know what it feels like to want to end it all but it's not worth it. It really isn't. And if you leave, who's to say that everything will stop? If anything, everyone else will just become an easy target without you here."

"But people will keep getting killed either way." Scott whimpers- his hand that's holding the flare trembling.

Avery tries to protest but a hand falling down on her shoulder keeps her from speaking. Peering over her shoulder, she finds Stiles staring sadly at her, tears swimming in his eyes before he focuses on Scott. "Scott, listen to me, okay? This isn't you." He tells his friend. "Alright, this is someone inside your head telling you to do this. Okay, now-"

"What if it isn't?" Scott sniffles. "What if it's just me?" Allison covers her mouth to keep from crying out while Lydia pulls Avery further back behind Stiles and in between her and Allison. "What if doing this is actually the best thing that I can do for everyone else? It all started that night. The night I got bitten. You remember the way it was before that?" He asks Stiles and Stiles nods. "You and me? We were- we were  _nothing_. We weren't popular. We weren't good at lacrosse. We weren't important." Avery cries at his defeated tone as Allison's hand reaches out to hers to grip in comfort. "We were no-one. M-maybe I should just be no-one again. No-one at all." He turns the flare a bit and Stiles steps forward.

"Scott, just listen to me, okay? You're not no-one. Okay, you're someone. Scott, you're my best friend." Tears slide down Stiles' cheeks. "Okay, and I need you. Scott.. you're my brother. Alright, so," Stiles looks down, glancing briefly back up before looking down again and taking a giant step forward so he's standing in the gasoline puddle along with Scott. "-so if you're gonna do this then-" Stiles reaches out, his hand gripping the flare above Scott's hand. "-then you're just gonna have to take me with you."

Avery chokes on her cry, attempting to move forward but Allison holds her back. They're all crying by now and Stiles is able to tear the flare from Scott's grip. The second he has it and is sure Scott's not going to lunge for it, he throws it behind him and the girls watch with horror as the flare lands right outside the gas puddle.

Avery breathes a sigh of relief but then a gust of wind blows and causes the flare to roll right into the puddle of gas- igniting it. Avery and Allison both freeze in shock the second the puddle catches fire but Lydia's pained scream of  _"Noo!",_ breaks them out of their state.

Lydia tackles both Stiles and Scott out of the way, Allison pulling Avery down with her as an explosion of fire erupts behind them. Avery hits the ground hard, both she and Allison covering their heads. Moments later, someone's moving her hands away and when she looks up, she finds Isaac checking her for any injuries. As he helps her and Allison up, Avery looks over and finds Boyd helping up a very shaken Lydia and the guys.

The seven of them watch in shock as the fire burns itself out before everyone takes a look around at themselves. When Scott somewhat snaps out of it, he catches Avery's gaze and frowns at her- her story coming back to the forefront of his mind. Avery had been right when she said that he had smelt her fear masking the whiff of disgust she had felt in that moment and he had a feeling that something had happened, but he didn't want to press or even believe that something like that had happened to her.

"Well, that went swell." Avery dead-pans and deflects Scott's line of thinking. "All in favor of showering and then sleeping on the bus say  _aye_."

"AYE!" Everyone mumbles in unison.

The group of friends start to make their way towards the motel again but Boyd lingers back. "I'll, uh, I'll just wait for you guys on the bus. I pretty much bathed already." He shrugs.

Stiles, Avery, and Lydia understand what he means by that so they each lead someone else up to the rooms while Boyd stays behind. Allison and Lydia go to theirs, Scott and Stiles to theirs, and Avery follows a freaked out Isaac to his room after grabbing her bag from the girl's room.

After everyone quickly showers, which ends been the fastest any of them have ever showered, and changed into more comfortable clothing- they all meet out on the balcony of the second level before marching down to the bus as a group, taking all their belongings with them. Isaac practically plasters himself to Avery's back, whimpering every now and then as he peers around the parking lot.

Once on the bus, Scott plops down on one of the available seats towards the front with Stiles taking the seat behind him. Allison and Lydia sit in the same seat together across from Stiles, and when Isaac reaches over Avery's shoulder to point at the back of the bus near Boyd, Avery figures he wants to sit with her. She nods, picks up her blanket and pillow that she had left on the bus and goes to the very last seat.

Setting the pillow against the window of the bus, Avery kicks off her running sneakers that she had put on to walk across the parking lot and sits with her back pressed against the pillow, curling in her left leg while her right foot planted firmly on the floor. She tosses her blanket to Boyd who rolls it up and uses it as a pillow of his own while getting as comfortable as he can.

Isaac suddenly looks hesitant to sit until Avery holds her hand out to him with an impish grin. He takes it, letting Avery pull him down so that his back presses against her chest. She maneuvers his head so that it lays on her shoulder while she moves all her hair to the opposite side. His long legs are curled and pressed tightly against the seat in front of him but he manages to get comfortable and relaxes against Avery.

The second Avery lets herself relax, the shrill ringing of her phone has everyone jumping on edge. She quickly reaches down towards the bag at her feet with her free arm, looking up to see the yellow glow of Boyd's eyes slowly diminishing. Looking at everyone else, they're all curiously watching her.

"Dammit." Avery grunts as she searches for her phone in her bag. "Shutup." She grumbles as her fingers close around it, Nik's name and dimpled grin taking up the screen. "Talk about perfect timing."

Avery accepts the call and puts it on speaker for the humans to hear but before she can speak, Nik speaks out.  _"You were right. That motel is the number one ranked place for suicides."_

"Yeah, Nik. We figured that out hours ago." Avery sighs tiredly.

" _Yes, well, did you know a woman drowned herself and her baby?!"_

"Mhm." Avery yawns. "Listen, Nik. It's all taken care of. We're all fine so I'll call you tomorrow to tell you how everything goes, yeah?"

" _Only if you're sure."_

"Positive."

" _Okay. Goodbye. Stay out of trouble."_

"No promises. Bye."

The second Avery lets her phone fall into her bag, she leans her head back and lets one arm sneak behind Isaac's back and between the back of their seat while her other hand rests on her knee- only to have Isaac reach out and start playing with her fingers. Isaac squirms a bit, trying to get comfortable again and the second he turns his face and shoves it in the crook of Avery's neck, he stills. He breathes in deeply, his whole body relaxing, and soon enough- darkness consumes everyone.

* * *

"I don't want to know." A voice startles Avery awake. When she turns towards it's source, she realizes that the sun's up and finds Coach Finstock staring at all their slowly waking forms. "I really don't want to know but in case you missed the announcement, the meet's canceled so we're heading home. Pack it in. Pack it in!" He yells in Ethan's face.

Avery yawns, attempting to wake herself up more when she feels Isaac move. Afraid that she had woken him up, Avery freezes. She can feel the warmth of Isaac's breath on her neck and when she looks across from their seat, Boyd is blinking himself awake as he stares at her, his face slowly breaking out into a smug grin. Avery glares at him, her cheeks heating up when Isaac starts to nuzzle her neck. Boyd then starts to shake with suppressed laughter at Avery's widened eyes and when Isaac's tongue peeks out to lick a trail from the side of her neck up to the lobe of her ear, she squeaks.

Isaac bolts up, eyes wide as his gaze darts back and forth from Avery and Boyd. "What- I didn't- I-"

"Scent marking." Boyd smugly states. "I've never actually seen it happen so, uh, thanks for that." He chuckles at Isaac.

Isaac groans in embarrassment, blue eyes bleary as he stares over at Avery. "It-it's fine." She shakily grins. "At least you didn't pee on me?"

Avery's attempt at lightening the mood works as Isaac and Boyd laugh. Seconds into their laughter, Boyd and Isaac froze, their gaze moving towards the front of the bus. Avery follows their gaze and finds Ethan sitting with Scott before getting up and moving back to sit with Danny.

"Derek's alive." Isaac murmurs the answer to Avery's unasked question. "But Ennis died so Kali's out for blood." Isaac stares down at Avery in shock. "He said that either Derek kills his pack and joins theirs or Kali's going to kill him."

Avery gasps, quickly standing and edging her way out to the middle aisle and scurrying further up to the front to plop down in the seat that Lydia just vacated to see what was going on. Lydia's studying the whistle she had just ripped away from their Coach's neck and everyone watches on curiously as she covers the top of the whistle with her palm and blows. When her hand comes away, she sighs and shows them all her palm where a purplish-white powder is now visible.

"Wolfsbane." She tells them with a bewildered expression.

"So every time the Coach blew the whistle on the bus- Scott, Isaac, Boyd-"

"And Ethan." Lydia throws in.

"We all inhaled it." Scott sums up.

"You were all poisoned by it." Allison makes him see the bigger picture.

"So that's how the Darach got into their heads." Avery mumbles. "That's how he did it."

Stiles' gaze darts back and forth between the wolfsbane on Lydia's palm and the whistle in her other hand. Quick as lightning- Stiles snatches up the whistle, gathers it up one hand before reaching over Scott and lowering their window.

"Hey, hey, hey-" Coach calls out as he sees Stiles panicking with his whistle in hand before flinging said whistle out the window. "Stilinski!" Coach yells at having his whistle manhandled and now lost as the bus starts to move.

They all breath a sigh of relief after that, Avery chuckling as her twin gets berated before standing to give Lydia her seat back. When she gets back to her seat, Isaac has taken her place against the window. His eyes are closed so she figures he had fallen back asleep but when his arms suddenly open as an invite for her to cuddle, she chuckles and quickly sits, snuggling up to the warm werewolf and going back to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As stated in the first AN of this story, I did say I was going the cliché route and adding in the scent marking and warmth of werewolves that everyone usually adds in their fic. It was just too cute to pass up. Sorry if it wasn't your cup of tea.
> 
> So, uh, yeah. That happened. I'm not sure I like the outcome of this chapter but I needed to post something.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: I apologize in advance for this crap-tastic chapter. I realize now that I'm seriously horrible at detailing fight scenes so yes, I apologize. And one more thing, I'm really sorry about messing up Boyd's dialogue. I wasn't sure what he was saying in the end but I tried my best.
> 
> Avery's outfit is right [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/currents_we_might_fall_ch/set?id=100437257).

**Currents**

Upon getting back to the school from their canceled track meet, Avery sends off a quick text to Nik telling him as such. He gave his apologies, knew that Avery just wanted to be a normal teenager, and wished her luck with the next one. Avery then takes a moment to 'thank' him for not flipping out and threatening Scott's life or her brother's and Lydia's for bringing her back in the middle of all the supernatural business. He tells her not to worry about it and to just be glad that there's only two supernatural beings and not more because then he'd have to step in.

And yep, Avery's really glad she made the decision to not let him in on  _everything._ After this morning's incident, she's quite happy being in the presence of Isaac and Boyd and doesn't want anything happening to them.

When Stiles, Lydia, and Allison pause at Stiles' jeep- with Avery and Scott at their motorcycles- Isaac and Boyd look forlornly around the parking lot.

Stiles takes pity on the two wolves since Derek was still M.I.A and declares his home open for the day to everyone as Avery secretly grins at her brother's hospitality and need to take care of everyone. There's room for one more to squeeze into the jeep and when Boyd scowls at the idea of being that person- because he still apparently isn't over Allison shooting arrows into him- Isaac takes the spot. That then leaves Boyd to climb atop one of the bikes but with his body build, Scott's is too small for the both of them so his only option is Avery as his ride.

Isaac growls lowly, Boyd and Scott both chuckling while Boyd mutters about keeping his hands to himself. Avery only laughs, places Boyd's hands on her shoulders after he climbs on behind her and took off for home.

..

..

Getting to the Stilinski household is a fast drive and once inside, Avery leads the girls to her room and bathroom so they can freshen up. She had thought they'd go home but apparently they didn't want to and they now had all day to lounge around.

When the girls finish upstairs, they go and see what the boys are up to only to find Scott and Stiles collecting whatever junk food they could find in the kitchen. Allison and Lydia help them out while Avery goes to go secure a seat.

There's one long couch that could probably hold four of them- Isaac already seated in the corner closest to Boyd who's seated in her Dad's usual recliner. She doesn't think twice about plopping down next to Isaac, scooting closer to him when Allison and Lydia walk into the room- Lydia passing out canned beverages.

Allison plops down next to Avery and Lydia squeezes in beside Allison. Scott and Stiles soon come in, Stiles whining about the fact that he has to sit on the floor in his own home when he sees nowhere else available. Avery then makes it up to him and lets him choose whatever it was they were going to watch.

Stiles and Scott quickly settle on the floor, Scott passing around chips and popcorn as Stiles chooses the marathon of 'Criminal Minds' that was playing on TV. He had a knack for trying to figure out the killer before the agents did.

No-one complains with the chosen show, everyone settling down and even throwing in comments on who they thought the suspect was. They get through three episodes, Stiles and Lydia being the only two right in naming the killers correctly when an episode airs that revolves around a rapist. The room grows uncomfortably quiet, Stiles eventually turning around and looking up at his sister.

Avery sighs, tells Stiles to ask whatever it is he wants to ask so she can answer his questions to the best of her ability. The atmosphere grows somber but the only thing Stiles asks is why she hadn't told him before last night. Avery shrugs and lets her gaze fall to her lap as she eventually answers that she still feels ashamed about it but not as much as she used to feel. She couldn't bear the thought of Stiles or anyone thinking or treating her differently because of something that happened in her past.

Isaac and Allison both unconsciously cuddle closer to Avery while Stiles picks something new to watch. He quickly settles on 'The Big Bang Theory', all of them chuckling with the characters on-screen and eventually uplifts everyone's spirits as they put Avery's past behind them.

One by one, everyone starts to yawn and nod off, and it isn't until John gets off of work and finds his living room overrun by sleeping teenagers that they all slowly wake up to get dropped off at their homes.

* * *

 

Majority of Sunday is spent researching. Avery had never heard of wolfsbane causing hallucinations so she wanted to read up and get the facts straight. Stiles sat by her side the entire time, reading what information his eyes could see before his sister clicked over to a new document. Whenever John would catch them staring intensely at the screen, Stiles would just wave him off and say it was a class project for English. He accepted that excuse and only pulled them away for lunch and an early dinner that Stiles and Avery had to cook before he went in to work.

The moments that Avery left her laptop unattended, Stiles had free reign to browse whatever he wanted about everything she had. His main interest were the two brothers that had saved his sister. He wanted to know anything and everything about them.

The minute John leaves for work, it's like 'open season on Avery and ask as many questions as possible'. Avery answers what she can of her brother's ramblings and settles in for a long night. Darkness quickly envelops Beacon Hills and just when the twins are going to settle down for a movie, Scott calls with news about Danny being admitted to the E.R by Ethan. Without a second thought, the brother and sister duo jump in Stiles' jeep and go down for moral support. But by the time they get there, police cruisers litter the parking lot and a crowd is gathering.

Once Avery and Stiles find Scott, he informs them that a lone vehicle crashed into the parked cars. When John asks for Scott and Melissa's statement, Stiles and Avery stood by and watched on. There was a bit of confusion when Scott and Melissa stated that two Doctors were missing, John thinking they were in the same car together, but Stiles quickly explained it and told them that they were two separate kidnappings. John sighed, asked for Melissa's statement first and sent the kids on their way.

Stiles, Scott, and Avery figured out that the missing Doctors- Healers- were part of the sacrifices. Scott then informs them that Danny had thrown up mistletoe- a plant poisonous to werewolves- and that it couldn't be just a coincidence. Stiles shrugged as he tried to figure out why Danny had been targeted- because he wasn't a healer- when he sees his Dad on the phone.

"Can you hear that?" He points towards his Dad.

Scott and Avery both look in the direction, Avery wondering what it was that had her Dad looking a bit too serious as Scott tuned his hearing in on the Sheriff. "They found a body." Scott informs them.

Stiles, Scott, and Avery all glance at each other- Stiles and Avery ready to investigate since Scott had to stay behind for his statement when John catches sight of them. "You two!" He calls out to his kids. "Home. Now. A deputy is going to follow you and make sure you stay there."

Well, so much for investigating.

Before Stiles and Avery can leave though, they both look expectantly at Scott. "Keep a close eye on your Mom. If they classify her as a Healer, she could be next."

Scott nods at his friends, not at all weirded out with the fact that they both just said the same sentence in unison without batting an eye.

* * *

 

The following morning, John is already gone for work because the missing people and murder had everyone stumped. The Stilinski twins had woken early, getting dressed as they planned more over breakfast. Avery had gotten a surprise text from Derek, the Hale alpha asking Avery to make sure that Isaac and Boyd went to school. When Avery texted him back- asking where it was that he had been- the only answer she gets is  _'Healing'._  She had to pester him for a good five minutes before he caved and told her that it was Ms. Blake he crawled to when his injuries were taking too long to heal and they had all left for a school track meet. Avery instantly felt guilty but Derek assured her he was now fine. They continued to text a bit- Avery warning him that Kali was out for blood now that Ennis was dead but he told her not to worry.

That was the last text she received from him that morning.

With Derek refusing to contact his pack, Avery deemed it a good idea that the pack go to him. The alpha pack wasn't playing around and if they were after Derek, he needed his betas and all the help he could get. Stiles agreed and as the two siblings stared at each other to see who was going to get out school for the day, Avery quickly volunteers herself and beats Stiles to the punch.

Stiles pouted at Avery but relented seeing as his sister was more involved with the two betas than he was at the moment. So while Avery texted Scott to tell Isaac that he was to skip school in favor of picking up Boyd and heading over to her house, Stiles picked up his backpack and headed out for school.

The two betas showed up not that long after Stiles had left and Avery showed them inside. She told them of her recently thought up plan of getting them to Derek's- after he contacted her with his whereabouts- and that whether he wanted it or not, he was going to get some help. The betas, every loyal to their alpha, easily agree.

And since she wasn't going to school, Avery then decides to change into a more likable outfit of hers. She found a white sleeveless cropped tank top with the words  **Wild Spirit**  printed on it and a feather beneath the words with dark denim skinny jeans. After lacing up her converse shoes that tied beneath her knees, she asked the boys if they wanted anything to eat while they waited to go to Derek's.

Boyd took a moment to think about it before sheepishly declining- Avery cocking a questioning eyebrow at him while Isaac asked what she had to eat. Avery had grinned at Isaac, ruffling his curls as she told the both of them to sit down at the table while she whipped them something easy up.

There, at the table, Boyd finds Avery's laptop open and can't help but browse the page the screen is currently on. He hadn't had much time to figure everything about what he had become and never had time to ask Derek because he was always too busy with the Kanima so when he sees some information about wolves, he can't help but read up on it.

While Boyd reads and Isaac tries not to fall back asleep- Avery cooks. She only has bacon, eggs, and toast but since she figures they aren't picky- she makes plenty. The look on Boyd's face when she drops a plate next to his arm is priceless. His eyes dart back and forth between the plate and a smirking Avery, and the second Avery places another plate in front of Isaac and retakes control over her laptop- both wolves eagerly dig in. Almost immediately, Avery gets a text from her brother saying that Harris is still missing. Or sick as Ms. Blake so kindly put it since she was taking over his class

And then halfway through their meal, Avery's phone rings.

"Speak to me." She answers.

" _Deaton's missing."_  Stiles immediately blurts.

Avery's eyes widen and the boys freeze mid-chew. "W-what?" She stammers.

" _He's been taken. He had enough time to tell Scott he was about to be taken and that he needed Scott to find him. It's the Darach. It has to be."_

"Okay. What do you want us to do?"

" _Nothing."_ Stiles tells her.  _"Scott and I are taking care of it, I just thought I'd fill you in. How'd Sourwolf take to pack bonding?"_

"Uhh.." Avery trails off, eyes darting to both Boyd and Isaac who had slowly started to eat again.

" _You haven't left the house, have you?"_

"It's all Isaac and Boyd's fault! They demanded I feed them."

" _Liar."_ Stiles scoffs.  _"Those two might be werewolves but they're the most soft spoken werewolves I've ever known."_

Boyd and Isaac both grin at Stiles instantly knowing his sister was lying. "Pft. You're no fun. Go find the Doctor. We've got an alpha to annoy."

..

..

With Deaton's case being taken care of by her brother and Scott, Avery lets the boys finish their food before she quickly cleans up and heads out. Boyd and Isaac run all the way to the loft, Avery playfully racing against them as she took her bike.

Upon arriving, they make their up to Derek's loft where Boyd easily slides the door open and they're immediately met by Derek's deep voice. "Go back to school."

"Well, actually we can't." Isaac calls out, all three of them walking down the four steps into the loft. "Boyd, Avery, and I are, uh.. incredibly and unbelievably sick."

"With what? Brain damage." Derek snarks from his position of sitting on the spiral staircase.

"Well," Isaac replies. "-I have a migraine and, uh, Boyd here has explosive diarrhea."

Boyd looks annoyed with his diagnosis while Avery giggles. "And you?" Derek's gaze lands on Avery.

Her amused grin slowly falls, a pout taking it's place as Avery tenderly holds her stomach. "Menstrual cramps." She whines and then snorts in amusement when Isaac and Boyd smile. "They're such a bitch to put up with but come in quite handy as an excuse when you live with nothing but males."

When Derek merely rolls his eyes at her, Boyd fills him in on what they're doing. "We're here to protect you."

"You're here to protect  _me_?" Derek asks as he finally stands and makes his way down towards them. "Well, I'm in trouble then."

"Actually, Boyd here, came up with a plan." Avery slugs Boyd's bicep before skipping towards Isaac and hopping up next to him on the table where he was skimming through a book.

"Yeah." Boyd pipes up before Derek can kick them out. "I thought about the time that Gerard had me and Erica locked up- tied up with electrical wires- pushing current through us." Isaac looks shocked at that bit of information as Boyd opens up his gym bag. "I was wondering how we could do something like that but on a bigger scale." He says as he pulls out jumper cables. "And after reading Avery's information, I figured out just how to make it work."

Everyone's gaze then turns to Avery. "What?" She sheepishly shrugs. "It's not like I'd use that info against you. I like you guys too much."

Boyd scoffs. "She likes  _one_ of us a little  _too_  much."

Isaac blushes and this time it's Derek's turn to look amused as a grin slowly lifts the corner of his lips. "Dammit, Boyd! You're no longer my favorite." Avery yells at him.

"I thought Isaac was your favorite." Derek surprisingly teases her.

Avery playfully gasps at him. "Don't even get me started on you, D. I got two words for you-  _Jennifer Blake._ "

And just like that, play time is over as Derek rolls his eyes at her. "Just makeout already. The tension is becoming too much." Avery and Isaac's gazes meet, both teens blushing before looking away. "But not here. Go somewhere else. Boyd and I have work to do."

Avery and Isaac blush even harder, both refusing to move. It isn't until when Derek and Boyd walk to the other side of the room to look for electrical outlets do either one of them say anything.

"Soo.. that happened." Avery drawls. "Was it as embarrassing for you as it was for me?"

"Yep."

"Cool."

Isaac snorts Avery's cool demeanor about the whole thing and it takes a moment for him to actually say or do anything. "C-can I check something? With you? Just to see if.."

Avery cuts him off with a shrug. "Yeah, su-"

Isaac's lips meet hers, effectively cutting her off. Avery visibly tenses at the sudden act though she manages to close her eyes when Isaac tilts his head to get a better lip lock. Before she can truly enjoy it- to make herself relax enough- Isaac pulls back with a blush and checks her face for any sign of regret. He notices her tense posture, confused expression, and even hears her heart beating a little erratically. When Avery sees him starting to frown, she plasters on a smile but knows that Isaac can see right through it.

"Was that not.. I'm sorry." He blurts. "I just thought that you li-"

Avery finally snaps out of her thoughts, relaxing just a bit to reach for Isaac's face with her hands and bringing his face back to hers. Instead of lip locking with him like he did her, she chastely pecks his lips. "You thought right." She grins shakily at him. "It's just.. we need to talk about that-  _this-_ before it can progress any further."

Isaac still looks confused and lost but when he sees that she's calming down and relaxing, he nods and hops off the table first, offering Avery his hand. When she takes it, he flashes her an uncertain smile and leads her towards Derek and Boyd. Whatever it was that they needed to talk about, it had to wait. They had work to do first.

..

..

Boyd ends up finding an indoor water faucet. After finding a hose, he connects it up and turns the water on, pulling the hose to lay it flat in the middle of the room. He explains how much power would be needed to kill a human- which is less than the power needed to turn on a lightbulb- and how if they disabled the buildings circuit interrupter, the current would be constant and anyone who stepped in would get a  _shocking_ surprise. Especially if said person were barefoot which one of the alphas- Kali- preferred to be.

As they watched the water run freely onto the floor, Avery is beaming at Boyd for his brilliance. And after Avery kept purposely splashing in the puddle, Derek picked her up over his shoulder and dropped her off on the staircase.

"You're to stay here and not move. Especially when the power gets turned back on."

Avery looks ready to fight him on it but when Isaac and Boyd back their alpha up, she huffs and sits down away from the temptation to splash around again.

Soon, Isaac and Boyd find giant crate-like squares that they lay down in the water and up against brick pillars that they were going to sit or stand on once the current is passing through the water.

As the water spreads out and starts to fill the loft floor, Avery receives a call from her twin informing her that he and Scott were so close to telling their Dad about what was  _really_  going on but Ms. Morrell cut them off before they could. Also, as it turns out, Ms. Morrell is in fact Deaton's sister and that she told them if they wanted to find Deaton, they had to seek help from someone who might have the ability to seek out anything supernatural- Lydia.

Avery sighs, knowing that her red-headed companion would be snarky the entire time. Stiles then goes on to tell her that he's recruiting Cora into helping him when Derek decides to take the phone away from Avery and demand to talk to his sister. While Avery complains about his rudeness of hijacking her phone, she completely misses when Derek insists that Cora politely ask the feisty redhead to stop seeing the alpha that was trying to kill them all. Avery rolls her eyes, takes her phone back, and then tells Stiles to call when they find anything out.

Every incoming text Avery then gets after their failed attempts with Lydia had Avery cackling and telling Derek that she had a new found fondness for his sister. Then the call came in, Stiles telling her that they were now headed to the hospital to visit Danny because Scott realized he wasn't a sacrifice to begin with but that Danny must have knew something that was worth trying to kill him over. Stiles then goes on to tell them that Scott had a run-in with Deucalion and that Deucalion admitted that the pack wasn't behind the sacrifices but that the pack did want Derek dead. He told them that Kali was out for blood and that someone was going to die tonight but whether it was Deaton or Derek, Scott had to decide.

Avery swore and promised him to call whenever he found out exactly what it was that Danny knew, and Stiles easily agreed before hanging up.

Boyd then takes the chance to get the power up and running again, throwing an exposed wire into the water that's covering the ground at least a few inches deep.

"God." Avery groans as she watches the water ripple with electricity. "Is it so weird that even though I know it's only a few inches deep, I still wanna dive into it?"

"Yes." Derek dead-pans. "Especially since one toe in will kill you."

Avery pouts while Isaac looks thoughtful towards the water. "Is this gonna kill  _them_?"

"I hope so." Boyd answers.

Everyone then takes their spots, Isaac and Boyd on their own crates while Derek stands next to Isaac. Avery sits upon the stairs since they had pretty much cornered her there and waits for the show to begin.

Minutes into her waiting though, she gets a text from Allison. She and the female Huntress trade text messages, Allison admitting that she felt her Dad knew something about what was going on and as she went through his things, she found a blacklight in his desk. Avery wonders why that would be a big deal and then Allison replies with the last time she was in his office, he strategically placed a book over a map as if he were trying to hide it from her. Once more, Avery has no idea why that would be considered suspicious but since she has time to kill, she waits for Allison to explain.

Apparently, Allison had invited over Scott and showed him what she had found. Using the blacklight, she held it above the map and found that her Dad had been tracking and marking everything. Cora and Boyd at the bank, the alphas in the pent house above them, and all of the dead bodies. Mr. Argent had specific symbols for where a person was taken and for where the body was found.

Avery swore in text message form but Allison wasn't done yet. There had only been six sacrifices so far yet Mr. Argent had twelve markings on the map.

Avery swore once more, this time out loud, and told Derek what was going on. Everyone listened as she read all the text messages and the recent ones that she had gotten with Allison explaining that she didn't know what her Dad is up to but she's going to keep a close eye on him to make sure that he isn't the one ritually sacrificing anyone.

As Avery wishes her luck with finding out more, Allison then lightens up the mood by telling her that she and Scott almost got caught by her Dad. They had to hide in the closet pressed closely together where  _little_ Scott started to stir. Avery cackled out loud, told the boys she was fine when they asked what was so funny, and then continued to tease Allison via text about little Scott scarring her for life now.

..

..

The sun had long fallen and Avery is seriously dying of boredom now that Allison is no longer keeping her amused. She looks out over at Isaac who she finds staring intensely at a silver box on a wall. "Isn't the light on that supposed to be on?"

Everyone turns to said box. "Yeah." Derek replies.

"What does it mean if it's not?" Avery gulps though she already knows the answer.

"Someone cut the auxiliary power." Derek tells them and not even two seconds later, the entire loft's power goes out.

" _Fuck me._ " Avery groans and immediately stands to her feet.

Isaac and Boyd both immediately scramble to their feet, Derek clenching his jaw in anger as he looks around. Slowly but surely, Derek steps forward- placing one foot in the water- and when nothing happens by the time he's in the middle of his loft, they start to panic.

"Derek," Isaac calls out. "-what do we do now?"

Derek slowly looks around, his head tilting up towards the door as he eyes glow alpha red. "We fight."

Boyd and Isaac scramble to flank their alpha while Derek looks over at Avery. "Get to the top of the stairs. Now!"

And since Avery hadn't even thought of coming prepared because she didn't really expect to fight, she listens without second guessing Derek and climbs to the top of the stairs where she's still able to see what's going on.

Something collides with the loft door and they all tense in preparation for what's to come. Three more hits to the metal door echo around the loft before the door slides open and in walks Kali.

"Gotta be honest, Derek." Kali says as she struts in with her claws already extended. "When Ennis died, I thought to myself I'd just go for it." Avery watches from her perch as Derek's features morph into that his his werewolf. "Find you and kill you wherever you stood. Then I remembered how you surround yourself with these teenagers- hiding behind them." Her gaze slides from Isaac to Boyd, and eventually up to Avery who's now glaring at the she-wolf. "And I thought what's a girl got to do to get you alone?" She smirks and turns towards the door when the twins walk into sight.

But not just the twins- no- the twins and Ms. Blake who they just so happen to be holding captive. Aiden holds one of her wrists tightly as Ethan grips her by the throat. The look on Ms. Blake's face tells Avery everything she needs to know- that Ms. Blake hadn't known exactly what Derek was up until this very moment. She looks terrified for her well being and shocked at Derek's appearance, and Avery guesses that if Kali is using Ms. Blake against Derek- there must really be something between the two.

Kali smirks as she turns back to face the Hale alpha. "You and me, Derek, or they tear her apart. What do you say, you think you can beat me one on one?"

Derek gestures for his betas to leave him, stretching his jaw and preparing for a fight. "I'm going to rip your throat out-" He growls. "-with my teeth."

Kali snarls at his threat, Derek snarling right back before he launches himself in the air- claws out and slashing at the female alpha as he comes down.

Isaac and Boyd watch helplessly from the sidelines as blows and slashes are traded between the two alphas, Avery worrying her bottom lip as she watches on from above. The one day she forgets to pack some weapons is really biting her in the ass right about now.

Avery's phone then vibrates in her hand and while she doesn't need a distraction right now, she has to answer to get everyone to the loft as soon as possible.

"Stiles, listen we-"

" _We found Deaton."_ Stiles cuts her off.  _"He's in the vault where Cora and Boyd were held. Deucalion had gave Scott a clue earlier and we figured it out. The alpha prick just didn't count on all of us helping so-"_

"That's swell, really it is,-" Avery blurts just as another roar erupts from Derek. "-but we have bigger problems. The alphas are here, holding Ms. Blake hostage, and they cut the power. Derek and Kali are going at it right now. Boyd and Isaac are forbidden from fighting or they're tearing our teacher apart."

There's silence on Stiles' end before Stiles comes back on the line.  _"Boyd just informed us as well. Fuck!"_ He curses.  _"Alright, okay, we- we're on our way. Scott's going for Deaton and we're going for Derek to turn on the power. Stay out of the way."_

"Yeah, okay, just make sure to tell that to Boyd and Isaac. The rest of you be safe."

" _We will."_

The phone cuts off and Avery goes back to watch the two alphas duke it out. Kali and Derek are both dodging swipes and kicks, the alphas growling in annoyance and agitation that neither of them could land a blow. Avery glances at Ms. Blake who's whimpering in the twins' hold and while Aiden watches on gleefully at the fight, Ethan stares back and forth between Derek and Ms. Blake with a frown. It's almost as if he doesn't want to be there.

Kali finally manages to claw Derek across his back and Ms. Blake screams in fear. "Derek!"

Avery flinches as the Hale alpha roars, Kali jumping up and using one of the pillars as leverage to propel herself back at Derek and kicking him across the face. As Derek goes down in the water, he quickly scrambles back up to his feet when Kali hops on the table- crouching and growling when Derek turns to her to continue on fighting. He takes a chance to swipe with his claws at her legs but he misses and she then stomps at his hand before kicking him in the back, and sending him away from her.

Derek falls again into the water, roaring in anger as he moves to get back up. Kali jumps into the air only to land in front of him and kicks him in the shoulder, sending Derek flying backward and landing in a crouch.

Ms. Blake screams yet again and Avery watches as Isaac makes a move to go help her. "No!" Derek hollers.

"Wait!" Isaac then yells at Boyd to keep him from running to the rescue as well.

Derek launches himself back at Kali, swiping at her but she catches his arm and throws him off balance. Every blow Derek gives, Kali easily catches and lands one of her own. She finally uses her alpha abilities to flip in the air before landing again in front of Derek and kicking him to land on his back.

The two alpha's continue to fight each other, Kali always having the upper hand in the fight. When Avery lets her gaze wander away from the fight and back to Isaac and Boyd, she sees them looking at their phones and knows the others have finally arrived.

Isaac takes off into a sprint before Boyd does, Ethan and Aiden moving to intercept the beta wolf as he runs for Ms. Blake when the power lights up the loft. Avery cringes when the power sparks and starts to electrocute the wolves- knowing full well that Derek is one of them but when she takes a chance to peak down, she sees Boyd falling.

Boyd had been caught in the water along with Kali and Derek.

Isaac quickly gathers up Ms. Blake to shield her from what's going on and the second Derek and Kali go down, the power ceases.

"Take him!" Kali growls and Avery watches helplessly as Aiden and Ethan move to grab Derek.

Kali picks up Boyd, Avery's eyes widening in fright for the beta wolf as the alpha twins grip Derek's wrists- making his claws extend. They hold Derek down, his claws held out as Kali lifts Boyd higher and drops him on Derek's claws, making the Hale alpha stab his own pack mate.

"No!" Avery screams when she hears Boyd groan and gasp out in shock. She starts to run down the stairs, tears threatening to fall from where they had immediately gathered only to stop on the last step, watching as Kali slowly backs off to let Derek see what he has done. Aiden looks on smugly as Boyd groans and tries to catch his breath, and Ethan looks as if he just made a bad decision.

Boyd finally falls to his knees against Derek and the other alphas retreat. "I'm giving you to the next full moon, Derek. Make the smart choice. Join the pack or next time, I'm killing all of you." Kali informs him before leaving.

Avery watches as the three alphas walk away, a hand at her mouth to keep in her cries as Derek morphs back to his human form in shock. "No. No. N-no. Hey." He shakes Boyd, trying to get his beta to wake back up.

"It's okay." Boyd tiredly informs him.

"No. No, it's not." Derek pants as he gingerly touches Boyd's wounds.

"It's okay, Derek." Boyd tells him again.

The tears fall from Avery's eyes as the beta tries to comfort his alpha in his last moments. "I-I'm sorry." Derek stammers.

"The full moon. That feeling." Boyd grimaces through his pain. "It was worth it." Avery freely cries now as Derek slowly crumbles apart. "Do you know.. the lunar eclipse? I always wondered what- what it would feel like for one of us. For a werewolf." Derek's eyes turn glossy as he listens to his beta talk to him. Boyd tells him of Erica and how she wondered what would happen to them on the lunar eclipse as well. He tells Derek that Erica had hoped it would make them stronger so that they could fight back when Kali had overheard her. Kali had stopped in her tracks to most likely put Erica in her place when the beta wolf attacked with all her strength even though she knew it wouldn't be enough. Erica went down in a fight and she was a fighter until her last breath.

Derek cries, as does Avery as she creeps closer to the duo. Boyd then falls back into the water, Derek letting him fall backward as his hands tremble and he looks down at them as if it were all his fault. Avery immediately falls to her knees, crawling to Boyd as she lays her hands on his chest.

"Boyd? Boyd, come on. Wake up." She whimpers as she shakes him a bit more. "You have to wake up." She cries before looking over at Derek who looks just as torn as she feels.

Avery hears feet running and when she looks up, she catches Cora's gaze before she starts to cry even harder. Cora pushes a shocked Stiles out of the way before running to them, the she-wolf falling to her knees as she lifts Boyd's head up into her arms. Cora starts to sob, gripping Boyd's shirt as she lays her head on his chest.

Looking back over at Derek, Avery now finds her brother behind him with a hand on his shoulder as Derek sits there with a guilt-ridden expression etched into his features.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> VERY IMPORTANT NOTE! In case you haven't heard, 3B of Teen Wolf is going to be a psychological thriller! While I am stoked to see the rest of the season and what they've done, I'm not feeling the psychological route the place I want to take this story.
> 
> As of right now, I'm pretty sure that I'm NOT going to write 3B into this fic. After the Jennifer Blake fiasco, I'm going to add in some more chapters before wrapping it up. So yeah, I'm going to go the cliche route and the Beacon Hills gang is going to have a decent happy ending with as much 'Ivery' fluff I can write in.
> 
> I am sorry to disappoint to you.
> 
> But to make up for it, Elijah and Nik will be coming into town ;)


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Outfit for part of the chapter can be found [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/visionary_we_might_fall_ch/set?id=100954993).

**99.5% filler and .5% Visionary**

After what felt like hours to Avery, Stiles and Derek are pulling their respective siblings off of Boyd's unmoving form. Avery and Cora are reduced to sniffling and trembling limbs as both Derek and Stiles each hug them, moving them so they're not staring down at their fallen friend and pack mate.

It's when Stiles has Avery wrapped up in a hug that Avery soon feels a hand at her back and when she turns, she finds Isaac with glossy eyes staring worriedly at her. Tears instantly cloud Avery's vision yet again as she lets go of Stiles and latches on to Isaac. Sobs wrack her body all over again as she clings to Isaac, the wolf tucking her head beneath his as if shielding her from the horrors they just witnessed.

Feet pounding against the floor sound nearer and nearer, and as everyone turns to the door- they see Scott coming to a stop behind a shell-shocked Lydia and Ms. Blake.

"Deaton's fine. He's going to be okay." He pants. "How did everything go here?" It's then that he notices a soaked Avery crying into Isaac's chest, a soaked and grief struck Cora leaning into Derek who looks just as grief struck with glossy eyes. "What did.. am I missing something?" As one, the group parts down the middle and Scott's gaze falls to Boyd's body. "Boyd?" Scott's voice wobbles as he brushes pass Lydia and Ms. Blake only to stop on the last step.

Avery moves around in Isaac's grasp so that her gaze catches Derek's. "Kali orchestrated it all." She says with as much conviction that she can muster up at the moment though her voice cracks in the end. "She gave Derek an ultimatum- either join them or we all die." Her gaze falls back down and Isaac hugs her closer once more.

"You can't be serious." Scott sighs. "What are you going to do? What are  _we_ going to do?" He asks.

"We're going to fight back." Derek answers gruffly. "After I take care of some things first."

No-one asks just what  _things_  Derek has to take care of when he walks over to Boyd, lifting the dead beta up in his arms. He looks around at everyone sadly before shifting Boyd in his arms and walking out of his loft with Cora on his trail. Avery's eyes follow them all the way out the door and the second they're gone, the only sound in the room is Avery's whimpering.

"Is she okay?" Avery then hears Scott murmur to someone.

She can feel Isaac's shoulders move before she sees Stiles move into her line of vision, reaching in and grasping her chin to tilt her head upward. "I don't think any of us are okay after what we just saw." Stiles replies as he takes in the smudged mascara beneath his sister's eyes. "And I don't think I can take Avery home like this." He sighs. "Dad's going to be in and out wanting to check on us and we can't risk him catching Avery bawling her eyes out during the night."

"So what do you suggest?"

"Your house, maybe? Call your Mom and fill her in. Ask if Avery and I can stay with you tonight."

Scott nods and jogs out of the loft as he goes to make the call. "What about us?" Lydia voices. "Do you need me to do anything?"

Stiles sighs as he turns towards his red-headed friend. "Just make sure Ms. Blake gets home safe. Isaac and I can take Avery and we'll get Scott to tail the both of you."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Stiles nods as he looks back at his sister. "We're sure."

Lydia accepts what Stiles has asked of her but before she can leave, she hurriedly steps down into the loft and up to Avery, offering Isaac a sad smile before pulling Avery into a hug. "I'm sorry." She murmurs into her friend's ear, knowing how close Avery had gotten with Boyd ever since he reappeared. "If you need anything, I'm only a call away."

Avery nods, sniffling softly into Lydia's shoulder as she clings to her friend tightly before letting go. Scott comes back in, telling Stiles and Avery that his Mom is at home waiting for them to show up. As Lydia makes her way back towards the door, she tells Scott that he's to follow her and Ms. Blake home to make sure the alphas aren't lingering around. Scott easily agrees, not wanting anyone else to be hurt and gestures for the two girls to follow him. Lydia and Ms. Blake turn to leave but before Ms. Blake disappears behind the wall, she turns back towards Isaac, Avery, and Stiles. "I'm sorry about your friend." She nervously blurts. "I know it's not much but-"

"It's fine." Avery mutters. "And thank you."

Ms. Blake's lip twitch before she nods and finally takes her leave.

"Come on." Isaac finally speaks up. "Let's get to Scott's."

..

..

Seeing as Avery was in no condition to drive her motorcycle, Isaac carefully drove it in front of Stiles' Jeep so Stiles and Avery could keep an eye on him on the way to Scott's. By the time they park outside Scott's home, Melissa is opening the front door and waiting for them.

The cool night's air has Avery a shivering mess by the time they get to the door and the second Melissa mutters,  _"Oh, sweetheart."_ , the flood gates are back open and Melissa has her arms full of a sobbing teenage girl.

Stiles sighs while rubbing the back of his head because Avery had just stopped crying inside his jeep and now the tears are back just as fast. Melissa ushers them inside with Isaac shutting the door behind them.

"I called your Dad." Melissa says as she walks Avery up the stairs knowing full well that the boys are following her. "Told him that you and Avery had a project to do so you'd be spending the night."

"Thanks."

"I also told him that I'd make sure you got to school in the morning so you either get ready for bed or be a fantastic actor when we wake up tomorrow morning and fake an illness."

"Gotcha." Stiles sighs as he glances at Scott's room. "Do you need me to-" He trails off as he nods at his sister.

"I got her." Melissa assures him. "I think my pajamas will fit her better than anything Scott has."

"A-alright. If you're sure."

"Positive." Melissa smiles at him. "Why don't you boys go wait for Scott in his room or something. I'll get you if I need you."

"Yeah. Okay." Stiles nods and watches as Melissa herds his wrecked sister into her room before gently shutting the door behind them.

With nothing more to do, Isaac and Stiles numbly make their way into Scott's room. Isaac sits on the desk chair while Stiles sits on the edge of Scott's bed, letting himself fall back with a groan. Isaac opens his mouth to say something but snaps his jaw shut a second later. He knows things are bad if Stiles isn't babbling a mile a second so instead of trying to figure out a way to solve their problems, he sits back and waits for Scott to show up.

Stiles, on the other hand, well Stiles doesn't know what to think. Ever since Avery showed up, he had never seen her show this much emotion and he doesn't know what to do. For him, crying females are usually easy to handle but he knows he has tread lightly since this female is his sister and what she just witnessed is something she shouldn't have had to witness in the first place. He doesn't do well with death and if his sister's reaction is anything to go by, neither does she.

Seven minutes in their silent brooding, Scott shows up with word that Lydia and Ms. Blake are home and safe.

Stiles sits up, making room for Scott on the bed and before any of them can start talking- Ms. McCall makes an appearance. "Stiles, your sister's phone has been vibrating nonstop. She's still in the shower but I think someone should answer it."

Stiles reaches out and Melissa passes him the phone. "Thanks. I'll, uh, I'll see who it is and see what they want."

Melissa gives all three boys a sad grin before leaving the room. "Who is it?" Scott asks.

Stiles unlocks his sister's phone only to find five missed calls and several texts- all of them from Elijah. Before he can answer Scott, the phone starts to vibrate in his hand. "It's Elijah." Stiles finally tells them and accepts the call. "Hello?"

" _Who are you and why do you have Avery's phone?"_

"It's, uh, it's Stiles." He stammers. "Avery's brother."

" _Oh. My apologies."_ Elijah states.  _"Is Avery available? It's not like her to leave her phone unattended."_

"Yeah, about that." Stiles sighs as he trades wary glances with Isaac and Scott. "Avery's in the shower at the moment but I don't think she'll be up for any calls tonight."

There's a moment of silence before Elijah's voice comes through the speaker.  _"What happened?!"_

"There was an incident-"

" _What type of incident, Mr. Stilinski. Please, be specific."_

Stiles rolls his eyes and then immediately thanks the Fates that Be that Elijah is on the phone and not there in person. He had a feeling Elijah wasn't the type to take rolling of the eyes very lightly. "We lost a friend of ours tonight." Stiles says. "Uh, how much has Avery told you about us here? About my best friend being a werewolf and what not?"

" _I know that Scott is not the only wolf in Avery's life, if that's what you're getting at."_

"Right." Stiles drawls. "Well the alpha of Beacon Hills, Avery befriended him and his beta wolves. It was one of the betas that we lost tonight. Avery witnessed it."

" _I see."_ There's a beat of silence as Stiles, Isaac, and Scott each hold their breath and wait for Elijah's reaction. They hear him sigh before he clears his throat.  _"Mr. Stilinski, I hope you pay attention closely to what I'm about to tell you."_

"Yes, 'sir."

" _Keep a close eye on your sister. These next couple of hours, maybe days, are going to rough on her."_ Elijah tells him.  _"Make sure she has your support and her friend's support. Let her know that you're there for her."_

"Of course." Stiles blurts. "W-we're at our friend's house right now. Scott's Mom has her showering and changing since we couldn't risk our Dad finding out."

" _Good. That's very good."_ Elijah states as he pauses briefly.  _"There's some business that I must attend to now but I expect a call tomorrow to be updated on Avery's well-being."_

"Yeah, okay, I can do that bu-"

" _Goodbye, Mr. Stilinski."_

And just like that, the call is ended. Stiles gapes at his sister's phone in his hand until the screen blacks out, groaning and resting his elbows on his knees as he lets what Elijah told him sink in.

..

..

Just down the hallway, Avery walks out of the bathroom that's attached to Melissa's bedroom. Clad in a borrowed light blue plaid pajama set that Melissa rarely used, Avery stumbles forward with blood-shot eyes and her bottom lip trembling as more tears threaten to fall.

"Oh, sweetie." Melissa coos and her heart instantly shatters at the distraught teen. "Come here." She says before scooting to one side of her bed as Avery moves closer. The teen crawls atop the bed, scooting up into the empty space and curling in on herself with her back to Ms. McCall.

Melissa takes no offense to that, choosing to scoot closer and the second Melissa runs her fingers through the damp hair, sobs instantly wrack the teen's body. "Why?" She cries and hugs her knees closer. "Why did they have to kill him?"

Melissa doesn't know how to answer that seeing she's still very new to the whole werewolf business so she goes with the answer that almost everyone would have given. "I don't know."

Avery seems to cry harder at that, tears soaking the pillow her head is resting on. The bed is shaking lightly due to Avery's cries and Ms. McCall does her best to soothe the hurting teen as best as she can. She pulls up the blanket so it's covering Avery's form and settles atop the blanket as to not weird the younger girl out. She leans on her elbow behind Avery while using her free hand to rub the teen's arm in a comforting manner.

The bedroom door creaks open but Avery doesn't make a move to see who it is. She sees a form move in front of her vision but with the tears clouding her sight, she has to wait a moment to focus on what's in front of her. She realizes that Stiles is now kneeling on her side of the bed watching her. He gives her a lopsided grin before reaching beneath the blanket, finding one of her hands and squeezing it in comfort.

"H-have you heard from Derek? Or Cora?" She rasps.

Stiles shakes his head. "No. I, uh, I answered your phone though. Elijah seems worried about you."

"I'll talk to him tomorrow." She says instead of getting upset over someone messing with her phone. "Just.. make sure you talk to Derek. Make sure he knows that it wasn't his fault."

"Okay but wh-"

"Just promise!" Avery cuts him off, tears filling her eyes once more. "T-the alphas. They're the one who m-made him.." She trails off as a lump forms in her throat and she has to clear her throat twice before she can speak again. "They used their strength to manhandle Derek and used his claws to-"

"They made him kill Boyd." Stiles realizes with frown.

"They did." Avery cries as Melissa softly gasps behind her. "He fought so hard but t-they  _-hiccup-_ w-were  _-hiccup-_ s-strong-"

"Okay, okay." Stiles cuts in. "We know. I'll be sure to let Isaac and Scott know too. We'll all text him and make sure he knows that none of us blame him."

Avery nods as she lowers her head back down onto the pillow. Her eyes flutter momentarily before finally staying closed and Stiles shakes her arm a bit, getting her to open her eyes. Seconds later, they close again and seeing the panicked expression on his face, Melissa quickly jumps in. "Don't worry!" She utters. "I crushed up two sleeping pills for her. She's going to need her rest for school if you all expect to go on as if nothing happened tonight."

Stiles breathes a sigh of relief, his head falling onto the mattress. "Yeah. Thanks." He mumbles before letting his sister's hand go. "I can get Scott or Isaac to help me move her-"

"Don't worry about it. She can sleep here." Melissa tells him as she scoots back to her side. "Can you stay here with her while I go shower?"

"Of course."

Melissa smiles softly at him as she climbs out of bed to stand on her feet and collects some pajamas for herself. When the bathroom door clicks shut behind her, Avery jumps awake. "W-what happened?"

"Nothing. Go back to sleep." Stiles immediately soothes her back down into bed. "Ms. McCall just went to go shower."

Avery sleepily nods, blinking slowly as she scoots back on the bed. "Can you lay with me? Please?"

Her voice is so vulnerable and meek that Stiles doesn't think twice before kicking off his shoes by the bed and climbing in. He climbs beneath the blanket, laying on his side facing his sister who's laying on her side and facing him as well. One of Avery's hand is resting right in front of her face and Stiles doesn't hesitate to grip her hand in is own as both siblings scoot as close as they can together.

"Just stay until I fall asleep. Or Ms. McCall gets out." Avery yawns. I don't want to be alone."

"You'll never be alone." He tells her.

Avery falls asleep gripping his hand and halfway through Melissa's shower, he hears the bedroom door creak open. Shifting his head so he can see, he sees Scott and Isaac peek their heads in. They take one look at the cuddled siblings before fully entering and move to stand nervously at the edge of the bed.

"She didn't want me to leave." Stiles murmurs. "She has a tight grip and I don't know how I'm going to move when your Mom gets out."

"She'll deal." Scott replies with a grin. "She can have my bed if she lets us stay in here or we can move Avery back to my room."

Stiles nods before letting his head fall back down on the pillow and closes his eyes. Isaac moves to the side of the bed where Avery's back is showing, and pulls up the blanket to tuck her in. He sits behind her, laying atop the blanket and curling up behind her as close as possible without touching her. They hadn't really talked about what was happening between them and he didn't want to freak her out. There's not much room left on the bed with three teens already laying in it but Scott manages to lay at the foot of the bed since everyone had their legs curled up.

Stiles is the second to drift asleep after the day they had and only Isaac and Scott are awake when Ms. McCall exits the bathroom. She takes one look at her bed and the sheepish smiles Scott and Isaac are flashing her before making a bee-line for the sofa chair in the corner of her room.

"My room is empty." Scott pipes up. "Sleep in there, Mom. I'm really sorry for taking over your bed."

"It's fine, Scott." Melissa assures him, moving towards him as he moves to sit up and she kisses his forehead. After a day like today, she really needed to show some affection for her son and be glad that he's alive and okay. "She's going to need all of you tonight and tomorrow."

"Thanks, Mom." Scott says at the same times Isaac mutters, "Thanks, Ms. McCall."

She smiles fondly at both boys before turning off the lights to the room. "Oh and Scott," She pauses in the doorway. "-if I were you, I'd move to the chair. I have a feeling Stiles kicks in his sleep."

Isaac snorts and Scott chuckles. "I'll be fine. Goodnight, Mom."

"Night."

* * *

The following morning they all get woken up by Melissa's voice. "Kids... kids!"

"What happened? What's going on?!" Scott blurts as he falls off the edge of the bed.

Stiles and Isaac shoot up as well, Isaac's eyes flashing yellow before he realizes that it's only Scott's mom. "Nothing." Melissa grins sleepily at them. "You're going to be late for school is all."

"Oh." Stiles sighs as he wills his heart to stop beating erratically. "Oh, yeah, um.."

Avery is the only one who's still curled beneath the blanket but as Isaac takes a seat on the bed, she turns on her other side and curls behind Isaac's back.

"We need clothes." Stiles then mumbles to no-one in particular though his gaze then falls on Avery. "Do- do you want me to go get our stuff from home?" He asks.

Avery blinks slowly before uncurling herself, turns on her back before shrugging carelessly while looking at Stiles. Her gaze then meets Melissa who's standing in the doorway and who then moves forward with a frown. "You don't look so well." Melissa says as she catalogs the dark circles beneath the teen's eyes, the puffiness and redness of said eyes, and the blank expression on Avery's face . "I think it's best if you stay home. Stay here." She admits. "I can call your dad and tell him you're running a fever and that I'll look after you while he goes to work."

"Can you?" Avery mumbles.

"Mhm." Stiles, Scott, and Isaac all each look like they're about to speak up but Melissa immediately shuts them down. "You three are going to school. You," She looks pointedly at Stiles. "-are going to go pick up your things and a change of clothes for Avery to drop off here and then you, Scott, and Isaac are going to school."

"But my sis-"

"Will be taken care of by me. If I need you- any of you- I'll text you."

Stiles groans loudly before agreeing because apparently there was no telling Melissa McCall  _no_. He takes one last look at his sister who would have been well rested if it wasn't for her waking up repeatedly in the night and choking out Boyd's name as if she were reliving the night's events in her dreams.

Not knowing what else to do, the three teen boys sigh before all climbing to their feet. Stiles and Scott shuffle out first while Isaac remains back. He shuffles from one foot to the other, his gaze darting from a clearly amused Ms. McCall to an impassive Avery. Quickly and before Ms. McCall can lecture him, he leans back over the bed- leaning over Avery while one hand goes to the back of her neck to slightly lift her up and kiss her forehead.

"I'll be back after school. Okay?"

"Okay."

As Isaac slips out of Ms. McCalls room, she grins at him as his cheeks color under her gaze.

Scott and Isaac take their time getting ready and when Stiles shows up back to their house, he's muttering about  _too many damn shoes for one person_  as he hands Avery her clothes and converse sneakers.

Ms. McCall gives Avery some privacy as she goes to check on the boys and a while later when she returns to her room to collect clothes to wash, she finds Avery zipping up a dark gray hoodie over a faded superman shirt. Stiles had picked up a pair of jean shorts as well and instead of putting on the black converse, Avery sits on the bed to slip on a pair of gray socks with turquoise and pink robots on them.

Melissa grins at Avery's cute socks before Avery stands once more, pushing her hair behind her ears and slipping her hands back up in the sleeves of the jacket before hugging herself.

"Are you hungry?" Melissa offers as she disappears into the bathroom and then reappearing with a laundry basket. "I can cook us some breakfast while you watch TV." Once more, Avery shrugs though she does do her best to offer Melissa a smile. "I'll take that as a yes." She chuckles. "Just let me get this in the wash, you go grab your phone from Scott's room, and I'll meet you downstairs after I freshen up."

Without a word, Avery does as she's told and easily finds her phone sitting on Scott's desk. There are no new notifications so she slips her phone inside her jacket and goes to wait downstairs for Ms. McCall. As soon as she gets comfortable, she can hear Scott's Mom rushing about upstairs to get things done quickly.

Avery sighs deeply, eyes trained on the blacked out TV screen as she thinks about last night. They had only planned to prepare Derek in case something were to happen. Of course they knew there was a chance of something happening but they didn't expect  _three_  alphas with two of them threatening Ms. Blake's life to show up, nor did they expect any deaths. At least, not a death of someone they were close with.

At the mere thought of Boyd and his smile from his teasing during the previous day, Avery's eyes instantly mist over. Her nose twitches as she tries to keep the tears at bay and her hand creeps into her pocket where her phone resides. She immediately goes straight to her photos and starts sliding her finger across the screen until she comes to what she's looking for.

It's a picture of her and Boyd.

The picture that Isaac had taken when she climbed atop Boyd's back when they were on the bus heading for their first track meet. It a side profile pic but you can easily see her beaming smile and the grin tilting Boyd's lips upward as he hooks his hands under her knees.

"That's an adorable picture." Melissa suddenly states and Avery jumps at the sudden intrusion. Avery's hands start to tremble at being startled and Ms. McCall immediately looks guilty. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"N-no. It's fine." Avery mumbles. "I zoned out. It's not your fault."

As Melissa walks around the sofa, Avery realizes that she has two plates of food in her hands and wonders just how long she was zoned out for if Ms. McCall had time to cook without her knowing. There's the basic scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast plated and Ms. McCall sets both plates on the coffee table in front of her before leaving back to the kitchen. When she comes back, she has two glasses of orange juice with her.

"Well, eat up." Melissa grins as she pulls one plate to herself while simultaneously turning on the TV and setting it to the morning news.

Avery feebly grins back, taking one plate for herself and picks up a piece of bacon to start nibbling on it. Even though she hasn't eaten in hours, the death of Boyd has wiped out any appetite that she might have had and the bacon upsets her stomach. Coming to the conclusion that since bacon easily upset her stomach, she figures that the eggs could possibly do the same. But not wanting to have Ms. McCall lecture her about eating habits, she forces down the bacon with the toast and sips at the orange juice.

Surprisingly, Melissa doesn't say anything when Avery finally sets the plate back down with all the eggs and two pieces of bacon untouched. Avery then curls back up with her feet tucked beneath her and her glass of OJ in hand as she settles back in the sofa to watch the news. There's nothing interesting on and with so many murders going on, it's quite a shock as to how oblivious the entire town is when they don't even acknowledge said deaths on TV.

Melissa soon finishes with her own breakfast, collecting both plates and glasses when Avery manages to finishes her juice to take them to load in the dishwasher. When she comes back to the living room, she finds Avery curled up with her phone back in her lap and the same picture on the screen.

As she takes a seat next to the teen, she manages to ask, "When was that picture taken?"

It takes a minute for Avery to answer and when she does, Melissa immediately regrets asking her. "It.. it was the day of our first track meet that got canceled." Her voice wavers but after clearing her throat, she pushes on forward. "S-scott had to really pee," She lies because even though Ms. McCall knew about the supernatural, she wasn't about to tell her about Scott's near death experience. "-and Coach wouldn't stop the bus because he didn't want to miss the meet so Stiles made made a kid on the bus throw up."

"Only Stiles." Melissa sighs with a laugh.

"Yeah." Avery chuckles as the tears slowly gather. "I can handle vampires and werewolves but not puke. Boyd joked about it but eventually caved and carried me over the puke like a gentleman. Isaac's the one who took the picture when we weren't paying attention." The phone slips a bit from Avery's hand and as her fingers slide across the screen, the picture jumps to the video before it. "Oh. Look!" Avery wipes away the gathered tears as a smile finally lights up her face. "Look at Stiles and Coach in action."

She plays the video for Ms. McCall, Scott's mom snorting in amusement at Stiles' attempt to get Coach Finstock to stop the bus. Every whistle blow has Melissa grinning wider and wider, and by the time Stiles' caves and Avery's laughter is booming through the speaker- it's then that they both notice when the phone changes hands. The video continues to show Avery curled up on seat laughing before pulling back and zeroing in on Stiles as he plops himself in a seat next to Jared near the front of the bus. Isaac moves the phone once more and before the video cuts off, it shows two seconds of Boyd smirking directly at the camera.

Avery's breath hitches and when Melissa looks over at her, she realizes that the teen hadn't known Boyd was in the video. Once again, hands start trembling and before Melissa has time to react, Avery bursts into tears. Melissa immediately wraps her arm around the teen's shoulders and pulls her into a sideways hug, rubbing her arm up and down trying her best to soothe her. "It's okay, sweetie. It'll get better. I promise."

But Avery shakes her head in denial. "It won't get better. It won't. They won't stop." She cries. "That girl Erica and Boyd are only the beginning."

Melissa doesn't say anything to that, her own eyes tearing up once hearing Erica's name leave Avery's mouth. She knew Erica, the blonde teen having been a frequent visitor to the E.R, and after Scott came clean about everything- she pieced together Erica's transformation and what had healed her. But now- this is the first time hearing any news about Erica and it wasn't at all what she had been expecting.

As Ms. McCall fights off her own tear fest, the house phone rings in kitchen. She bites her lip in contemplation on whether to answer it or not but when Avery shifts away from her to curl up in on herself, she takes the chance to go answer it.

The phone call ends up being the Hospital telling her that she needs to head in right now instead of her later shift. She tries to see if there's any other on-call attendants available because she's busy at the moment with a sick kid but they tell her she has no other option. Caving in, she tells them she'll be in as soon as she can get someone to her house to keep her friend's daughter company.

With only one option available, Melissa pulls out her cell phone and sends a quick text to her son.

_'The Hospital needs me . Now! Get your butts home to comfort Avery.'_

Melissa pockets her phone after she gets back a quick  _'On it!',_ and sits with Avery on the couch until the kids show up.

..

..

By the time Melissa hears the rumble of Scott's bike, her front door is swinging opening with Allison and Lydia rushing inside. Lydia has a plastic bag in hand that looks to be carrying a tub of ice cream and the second Melissa gets up from her seat, Allison and Lydia plop down on either side of the sniffling teen who now has the hood of her jacket pulled over her head to hide from everyone's gaze.

"Oh, honey." Lydia coos softly as she places the bag on the coffee table.

Avery moves to sit up straighter, sitting indian style on the middle cushion and letting her head fall to the left onto Allison's shoulder. The two girls share a quick look with each other before huddling closer to their distraught friend as Stiles, Isaac, and Scott come in next- the three teen boys rushing into the living room. There's a moments hesitation on the boys' part when Ms. McCall re-enters the living room and gives the girls three spoons. Allison takes them with a smile before reaching forward and pulling out a rather large tub of ice cream and setting it in her lap.

"Chocolate fudge brownie." Allison mutters. "It can cure almost every type of heart ache."

She pulls the lid off of the chocolate ice cream, sticking one spoon in before popping it in her mouth. Giving the other two spoons to Lydia and Avery, she encourages them to do the same and isn't let down when Avery finally dips in. The boys immediately gather around, sitting in any available space they can squeeze themselves into with Isaac on the floor in front of Avery.

The news playing on the TV eventually bores Lydia to tears since it's nothing relevant and ends up changing the channel. When she just keeps flipping through the channels with no sign of stopping, Scott reaches over and puts it on Cartoon Network. Lydia scoffs at the sight of Looney Tunes, angrily sticking her spoon into the ice cream as Avery smirks just the slightest at her.

Scott immediately counts it as a win when he catches sight of the smirk and turns up the TV just a little louder.

As the girls dig into the ice cream, Allison looks around before pulling a couch pillow from behind Stiles and slipping it into Avery's lap to place the ice cream on top so Lydia can reach easier. They settle into a calm atmosphere as the girls quietly devour the ice cream and by the time Ms. McCall comes downstairs in her scrubs, half the tub of ice cream is gone.

"If the Sheriff decides to stop by, you're all to fend for yourselves with excuses on why you're here and not at school." Melissa tells them. "I'm working a double shift so I'll be home in the morning. Please, behave."

Scott smiles and nods at his Mom while Isaac, Stiles, Lydia, and Allison all call out, "Got it, Ms. McCall."

She chuckles at them as she passes by, running her fingers through Avery's hair as she passes. Avery sighs contently, leaning her head back and grinning up at Ms. McCall and it takes everything in Melissa to not tear up at the sight of a genuine smile finally dawning on Avery's face without tears being in the mix.

Ms. McCall soon leaves, leaving the only occupants of the home being six teens. When the ice cream gets to watery to enjoy, Lydia passes it to Scott who throws it in his freezer in hopes of the girls forgetting about it so he can have some later. With the ice cream no longer occupying the pillow in Avery's lap, she pushes it forward just the slightest and tugs back on one of Isaac's curls. Isaac's head follows until she has his head laying on the pillow, her nails scratching gently at his scalp as he sinks further into relaxation. There's a groan of possible of disgust coming from the left, and when Avery and Allison turn towards the noise, they find Stiles grimacing and glaring at Avery for even touching Isaac in front of him.

Avery actually laughs at that, her laugh catching everyone off guard. Her free hand flies to her mouth, eyes wide as she sits in disbelief that the laugh came from her. From the girl who'd been crying on and off all night and this morning. Stiles slowly cracks a grin at her, Allison following with a snort and soon- everyone in the living room is chuckling. Avery's chuckles turn into booming laughter and before anyone knows it, they're laughing so hard with no particular reason as to why.

As the teens clutch at their stomachs from laughing, a phone ringing suddenly brings everything to a halt. The laughter slowly dies down as they look for the source only to have Avery slowly pull out her phone from her jacket pocket.

Derek's name is sitting atop the screen with a black and white picture of said Hale with his arms crossed over his chest. It was the picture that Avery had snuck of him when he was arguing with Scott not-so-quietly about Allison and Lydia helping them that day in school.

Without so much as glancing at anyone around her- 'cause she's pretty sure Allison and Lydia saw who was calling- she quickly accepts the call. "Derek?"

It's as if everyone's holding their breath in the room when the other end of the line remains silent for a couple of seconds.  _"Uh, no. It's Cora."_  Comes the reply and Avery visibly slumps in her spot. _"I was just checking to see if you've seen Derek but by the way you answered- you haven't."_

"Derek's missing?!" Avery immediately jumps to that conclusion. "S-since when?

_"He's not missing."_  Cora sighs on the line.  _"It's just.. it's just something he does when something bad happens. I had just thought that he'd with you. You seem to be the only somewhat normal one of us all and he seems to trust you like I've never seen him trust anyone else."_

Avery gapes at that. "Oh. I'm sorry but I haven't seen him."

_"Well, it was worth a try. If you hear from him, let me know?"_

"Of course." Avery blurts. "As long as you do the same just so I know he's okay?"

Again, there's a moment of silence before Cora speaks.  _"Uh, yeah. I can do that."_

"Thanks."

_"Uh huh. Yeah."_  The she-wolf mumbles before the phone line goes dead.

As Avery slowly takes the phone away from her ear, no-one speaks and even though the TV is still going- the room seems silent. When she finally pockets her phone, it's Lydia who breaks their silence.

"You have a picture of Derek on your phone?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Do you have one of me?"

"Possibly."

"Is it at least more flattering than Derek's?"

"Obviously."

"Good."

Lydia goes back to watching the immature cartoon show while Avery catches everyone's gaze. With a shrug, they all go back to watching TV though now everyone is secretly wondering just where it is that Derek got off to.

..

..

It's sometime later that Avery jumps awake only to find herself laying down with her head in Allison's lap and her feet under a pillow on Lydia's lap. Stiles, Isaac, and Scott are all sitting on the floor in front of the couch and everyone is staring at her with odd expressions on their faces.

As Avery wills her heart to stop pounding, she sighs. "I was sleep talking, wasn't I?"

"It's fine." Allison says. "It's to be expected after witnessing what you did."

"Boyd?"

"Boyd." Everyone confirms.

Avery sighs once more, sitting up and shoving her legs behind Isaac's back in front of her. As everyone goes back to watching TV, Avery slips out of her jacket because she was apparently sweating in her sleep and now she's just uncomfortable in it.

As she tries to settle down, Allison starts fidgeting. From the corner of her eye, Avery sees the Huntress repeatedly checking her phone for several minutes before she finally stands.

"Okay. Scott and I have somewhere to be. Are you four good to be alone?"

"Yep."

"Yes."

"Of course."

"Where you going?"

Simultaneously, Scott and Allison look to Stiles who's curiously staring at them. His gazing is cut short though when his text alert goes off and he checks to sees who's texting him and what it is they want. His eyes widen just the tiniest bit and, he too, is suddenly on his feet.

"So, you three good to be alone?" He too says.

Lydia and Avery narrow their gaze on him now, both females wondering where the hell everyone suddenly has to be while Isaac just nods and slips into Allison's vacated seat.

"What's going on?" Avery mumbles. "Where do you all have to be all of a sudden?"

Stiles snaps his mouth shut as he waits for Allison and Scott to go first. Allison is the one who looks nervous and when Scott catches her biting the corner of her bottom lip in contemplation, he answers for her. "Allison has a hunch that her Dad knows something about the alpha pack. Or that he knows someone who knows about this alpha pack."

"And does he?" Avery mumbles while catching Allison's gaze.

The Huntress nods and refuses to meet anyone else's stare. "My grandpa. My dad knew where he was and-"

"Gerard!" Stiles yelps, cutting her off. "Gerard's still alive?!"

"Yep." Scott grunts. "And he knows stuff. I'm going to try and get it out of him."

"Son of a-" Stiles groans while wiping a hand down the front of his face. "Yeah. You guys do that. I'm going to Derek's."

"Derek's?" Isaac suddenly perks up. "You heard from him?"

The Stilinski male shakes his head. "No but Cora wants to talk. Wants to explain her brother's behavior. Maybe I can learn some new things."

The room once again goes silent and when no-one says anything, Avery rolls her eyes. "Go. Isaac and Lydia can stay with me but we're going back to our house." She says pointedly to Stiles. "No offense to your home, Scott, but I just really want to be in my own house."

"None taken."

"Are you sure?" Stiles says. "What if Dad comes home early? How are you going to explain your miraculous recovery?"

"I don't." Avery shrugs. "I figured I'd just lay against Isaac." Isaac blinks owlishly and blushes as Allison and Lydia both smirk at him- Scott and Stiles grimace. "Body heat, you weirdos." Avery sighs with a roll of her eyes. "Werewolves run hotter, remember?"

Scott and Stiles now look uncomfortable while Allison and Lydia frown. "Whatever." Lydia stands up now, placing her feet back in her shoes. "If we're leaving, Allison needs to drive me because I came with her."

"My bike is still here, right?"

"Yeah but you can't be seen driving." Stiles reminds her. "You're supposed to be sick."

"Well then Isaac can drive while I sit behind him." Avery groans because now she just wants to be home. "If he crashes, he has them nifty little healing powers and then he and Lydia can just shove a blood smoothie down my throat."

"Blood smoothie?" Lydia grimaces. "Do I even want to know?"

"Yep." Avery turns to grin at her. "Come on. There are some things you have yet to learn."

..

..

When Avery, Isaac, and Lydia finally do make it to the Stilinski household- John is nowhere in sight. Stiles had gone straight to Derek's and while Lydia climbs out of Allison's car and Scott gets out to move to the front passenger seat. Avery jogs over to Allison's car, head peaking in as she warns the two teens to stay away from closets. Allison glares at her while Scott looks confused as to why she would say that and when he realizes why she said it, the tips of his ears and cheeks burn red.

Before he can scold Avery to keep her mouth shut, Avery is jogging away while Allison starts to wheeze with laughter inside the car before pulling away from the house.

Once inside, Avery tells them to make themselves at home in living room while she goes to change in more comfortable clothing and while she retrieves her laptop for Lydia.

When she finally comes back down- Avery's in socks, black capri leggings, and a loose gray cardigan over a white tank. Her hair is pulled back into a ponytail as she drops her laptop into Lydia's lap before taking a seat next to Isaac.

"Everything I've learned is on that laptop. Read away."

Lydia's eyes light up at the possibilities of what she can find as she quickly opens up the Mac and powers it on. "Thank you.. but I still want to know what you meant by a blood smoothie."

Avery snorts as she finds the remote and turns on the TV, skimming through the recorded programs. "Vampire blood heals. Remember that fight I got into with Cora that Derek told everyone about?"

"No." Lydia narrows her gaze. "What fight?"

"Huh. He must've only told the wolves then." Avery hums in thought. "But anyway, I confronted Derek over a issue with his pack, Cora didn't like it, we got into an argument that escalated to a physical altercation and she clawed me."

"What?"

"Yeah, what?!" Isaac snarled. "Derek didn't tell us that. He just said it was an argument that ended up with a few blows but nothing life threatening."

"It wasn't life threatening." Avery sighs, scooting closer to Isaac so there's not that big of a gap between them. "I just had some gashes and when I came home, I downed some vampire blood that I have in my mini-fridge and  _poof_. Wounds healed, knitted together, vanished.. whatever you want to call it."

"Interesting." Lydia pursed her lips together. "Password, please?" She then says as she turns the laptop to face Avery.

"Just type in  _reynolds_ \- all in lowercase- followed by  _1920._ It's the master password so you don't need every documents personal password." Avery tells her.

"I see." Lydia said as she clicks away at the keys. "I get  _reynolds_  but why  _1920_?"

Avery grins as she tosses the remote to Isaac, not being able to make up her mind. "The 1920s was 'lijah and Nik's favorite time. Everything was black and white suits, and flapper dresses. You should see the pictures."

Lydia seems to be ignoring her now so as Lydia does her thing, Avery's attention is solely on Isaac now. He sheepishly grins at her as he put on a basketball game and she returns the grin as she settles into the sofa. Getting as close to him as possible without actually touching him, Avery clutches a couch pillow to her chest as she focuses her attention on the game.

As the game drones on and Lydia soaks in new information, Isaac attempts to get comfortable by resting his arm on the back of the sofa he and Avery are sitting on. He can hear Avery's heartbeat speed up and it's then that he remembers Avery said they needed to talk. He can feel her tense, her heart beating erratically and his curiosity gets the best of him when she seems to tense further before slowly relaxing. When she looks up at him, he quickly plasters on a sheepish smile. She returns the gesture and even goes as far as resting her head on his shoulder.

Only minutes into what Isaac was hoping could be classified as cuddling, Avery slowly tenses once more before shooting to her feet. "I'm.. gonna get snacks. Do you guys want anything?"

Lydia immediately waves her off and Isaac frowns as Avery radiates nervousness and books it to the kitchen without waiting for his answer. Since Lydia is obviously not paying attention, he decides to check on Avery and see what's going on.

What he finds in the kitchen is Avery frantically opening and closing cabinet doors before moving on to the refrigerator.

"Mind telling me what's going on?"

Avery jumps at the sound of his voice, slamming the refrigerator door shut in the process. "N-nothing."

"Don't lie to me." Isaac sighs. "Is this about that talk you said we needed to have?"

"I- It's.." Avery bites her bottom lip as her nerves get the best of her, her gaze falling and refusing to meet Isaac's.

As Avery tries her best to ignore him and figure out what to say, Isaac rethinks over what happened. When her heart beat picked up and when she started to tense. "You started to freak out when I placed my arm around you." He says when it suddenly dawns on him. "Are we okay?" He then asks. "Do you still-"

"Yes." Avery immediately blurts. "I still.. I do like you, a lot actually." She admits. "But the thing you have to understand- the thing you  _need_ to understand is that anything with me won't be easy." Her gaze finally meets his and it's then that Isaac notices the tears shining in her eyes. "With my past.. romantic relationships are hard to start and even harder to maintain because no-one wants to be patient.."

Avery is too busy rambling through her explanation that she doesn't see Isaac rushing towards her and only stops talking when she feels arms wrap around her. Again, she tenses and her heart hammers in her chest cavity.

"Ssh. It's okay. It's just me." Isaac tries to soothe her. "I.. I can wait. For however long you need me to."

Avery nods against his chest, willing herself to relax in his hold. "It's the t-touch that does it. Anything that can be classified as intimate makes me freak out if I'm not the one to initiate it first, and-"

"I kissed you yesterday!" Isaac cuts her off with a groan. "It was unexpected and.."

"..and totally welcomed even though you caught me off guard." She assures him. "I knew it wouldn't go past a kiss because Derek and.. Boyd," Her voice cracks over the beta's name. "-were there so I wasn't really nervous about anything then. But now, earlier in the living room.."

"It's okay." Isaac tells her. "I get it now. I understand. You initiate anything and everything from here on out, and I will just go with the flow."

Avery snorts at that before sighing in relief. Chuckling, Isaac tightens his grip on her and she finally returns his embrace with a smile. "Thank you."

..

..

The next time Avery jumps awake, it's because John is lightly tapping the bottom of her foot with his boot. She sleepily sits up, realizing that her head was cushioned by a pillow that's in Isaac's lap who is also asleep. Rubbing her eyes, she realizes that Lydia is curled up in the sofa chair that she had settled in earlier- and thankfully- her laptop is powered off and closed.

"H-hey, Dad. What time is it?" She yawns.

"Just after ten. Where's your brother?"

"Probably causing mayhem with his other twin." She answers as she sits up now, more awake than she was before. At the sound of their voices, Isaac and Lydia both stir awake. "Lydia and Isaac kept me company after school."

John grins at that as the other two teens straighten themselves out. "While I appreciate that your friends kept you company, it's a school night."

"Yeah, yeah. I know." Avery stands up now and John takes a moment to critically eye her. "The fever broke earlier, if that's what you're wondering. Ms. McCall is an awesome caretaker."

"I bet she is." John laughs. "While you get your friends sorted out, I'm going to go shower. Tara, one of my deputies, sent over some soup for you. Apparently word traveled fast that I had a sick daughter and she said she hopes you feel better."

"Awesome. Thanks, Dad."

"Mhm. Night, kiddos." John calls as he takes his leave from the living room and trudges up the stairs.

As soon as John had disappeared upstairs, Avery led Lydia and Isaac outside only to realize that their mode of transportation was Avery's motorcycle. After suggesting that she could give each of them a ride home if one where to wait outside her house for her, Isaac quickly suggested that he could just run back to Scott's house while she took Lydia. Avery had immediately made a move to decline but Isaac would have it no other way and didn't budge.

With a sigh, Avery had caved and after assuring Isaac that he text her once he got there, he pecked her on the forehead and disappeared into the night. Lydia grinned at the cuteness of them two but before she could start shooting off question after question, Avery started up her bike and urged Lydia to hurry before her Dad shooed her off the bike and drove Lydia home himself in the patrol car.

..

..

By the time Avery showed up back home, Scott and Stiles are waiting out front.

"Boy, do we have a lot to tell you." Stiles sighs.

"Can it wait just a little bit longer?" Avery groans as she pockets her keys. "Dad said someone by the name of Tara sent me some soup. We fell asleep earlier and I haven't eaten yet."

"Tara sent soup?" Stiles suddenly perks up. "She makes the best soup around town."

"Yes, well, she sent  _me_ soup. You'll just have to suffer."

As Stiles whines and pouts, Scott follows Avery inside the house where she hastily heats up her soup and drinks it straight from the bowl. Stiles actually scowls at the fact that she's not using a spoon and actually gags when she starts slurping the juice. When she pulls the bowl away from her mouth, there's a noodle stuck to her chin and Scott doesn't bother hiding his amusement when Stiles tears off a paper towel from it's roll and cleans his sister up like a parent would a child.

"Okay, okay." Avery laughs. "I'm clean. Let's go talk in my room and pray Dad doesn't kick Scott out."

Stiles and Scott concede, following Avery through to the living room where she picks up her laptop before jogging up the stairs to her room. From the sounds of it, John is just finishing up with his shower and Avery is surprised that she got Lydia home and slurped down her dinner all before her Dad even realized she had left.

When they get into Avery's room, Avery immediately opens her closet door and shoves Scott inside just as the bathroom door in the hallway opens. Footsteps near her room and before Scott can say anything, John peers inside her room.

"Nice to see you home, Stiles. You and Scott done terrorizing the community?"

"Uh, yeah." Stiles answers. "Just filling Avery in on what she missed today. Finstock was pretty upset his favorite lady runner wasn't there."

"Bummer." John snorts. "Well, it seems he can have her back tomorrow. Whatever Melissa did worked. She seems better, don't you think?"

Avery rolls her eyes at her Dad and brother talking as she wasn't right there with them. "Uh huh. Yeah." Stiles laughs when he catches her rolling her eyes. "She looks a whole lot better." He then says softly.

Avery grins sheepishly as both sets of eyes turn to her. "Yeah." John sighs. "Well, I got a long shift tomorrow so I'm going to head to bed. Don't stay up too late."

"Got it, Dad." Both teens say in unison.

As John leaves, Avery holds up her hand to halt Scott from coming out of the closet until she hears her Dad's bedroom door shut. As soon as she hears it shut, she rushes to quietly shut her own door before Scott stumbles out.

"Okay. Spill. What'd you two learn?"

Avery goes over to her mini-fridge as she lets the two boys make themselves comfortable. She pulls out two bottles of juice, keeping one for herself and tossing the other to Scott who had found out he rather liked Cran-Apple juice.

"Peter told us what the color of the eyes meant." Stiles supplies. "We obviously know that red means alpha, yellow means beta, but the blue-"

"Means that the werewolf took an innocent life." Avery cuts him off.

Scott's eyes widen as Stiles deflates. "How'd you know that?"

"That's old news for me." Avery shrugs it off as she opens her juice bottle to take a sip. "Elijah sent that to me a while back."

"Yes, well, did you know that before Derek became alpha- his eyes were blue?"

"No. I didn't." She breathes in awed shock. "Did he-.. who?"

"It was a long time ago." Stiles tells them. "Derek fell in love while he was in high school. It was your typical teenage romance but, of course, Peter was there to warn Derek to cool it with the girl or else she'd find out what they were. Derek was adamant that Paige wouldn't find out."

"And? What happened next?" Scott gulps.

"This is where it gets weird." Stiles admits with a frown and Avery sighs, "Of course.", as if she were expecting it to turn weird sooner or later.

"Remember Ennis?" At Scott and Avery's nod, he continues. "Apparently he was in town when a Hunter took down one of his betas. Peter said he could see just how much it affected the alpha and he said Derek saw an opportunity. A way to always be with Paige."

And then it dawned on Scott. "They turned her."

"That's what Peter said." Stiles sighed. "He said Derek spent a lot of time thinking about it and as the days passed, the more convinced he became that turning Paige was a good idea. Apparently, the Hales were well respected and other alphas were always trying to come up with a way to be in the Hale's good graces. Turning Paige for a Hale family member seemed like a good opportunity and so a note got sent to Paige to meet up with Derek at night in the school but when Paige showed up, Ennis was in his place. He attacked the girl, Derek intervened because he couldn't go through with it but it was too late. Ennis had already bit her."

"While learning this about Derek is dandy, what does it have to do with the color of his eyes?" Avery yawns.

"Paige's body rejected the bite. She was in so much pain that she begged Derek to end her life."

"Oh." Avery gasps. "That's.."

"Tragic." Stiles offered. "She apparently also knew what he was and she didn't care. She still loved him." He saw his sister's eyes tear up at that piece of information so in a bid to get her mind off if it, he offered up something else he learned. "Oh and another whammy, Morrell- our guidance counselor- she's an emissary for the alpha pack."

"Fuck." Avery groans while Scott doesn't look so shocked by that piece of information.

"Yeah, so after that, Derek changed. He wasn't the same anymore and became more closed off and wary of everyone. When Peter finished telling us, Cora and I got to talking. We only got the story from Peter's perspective. The whole time he was telling us, he seemed too passionate. Too sympathetic."

"And that's a bad thing?" Avery questions.

"It's Peter." Scott answers for Stiles. "We can't exactly trust him."

As the trio lets that information sink in, Stiles suddenly turns to Scott. "And what did Allison's grandfather have to say?

"Well," Scott sighs. "-as it turns out, Deucalion might have no eyesight but it doesn't mean he's always blind."

"What?"

"Yeah, what?" Stiles repeats after his sister. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"He can see as a wolf." Scott explains.

"And how in the world does Gerard know all this?"

Scott gulps down his juice quite easily before tossing the bottle to Avery so she could trash it. "Because Gerard's the one who did it." Scott allows the Stilinski twins to grumble and groan before continuing. "Apparently, the alphas- Deucalion, Kali, and Ennis- had gathered here in Beacon Hills, each with their own Pack before they slaughtered them all. There was a powerful alpha that resided here in Beacon Hills. An alpha who had the ability to shape shift, which is rare among our kind, and the alphas all looked up to her. She was a leader of sorts, the person they'd all go to for advice and guidance."

"Who was it?" Avery asks.

"Talia. Talia Hale."

"Hale?" Both Avery and Stiles say at the same time. "As in Derek's-"

"Mom." Scott cut off his best friend. "Yep. Derek's mom. There was a Hunter problem when one of Ennis' betas killed a Hunter and the werewolves didn't know what to do. So then Deaton, who is the Hale Emissary by the way, organized a get together between Gerard and Deucalion."

"And let me guess, the meet didn't go so well?"

"I don't know." Scott sighs as he thinks about how to answer his friend. "Just like you said with Peter, how you only got one side of the story, the way Gerard was telling us- it seemed practiced. Like he rehearsed the story over and over until he himself believed it. I was listening to his heart beat and the entire time, it never went up but it never went down either."

"Okay, so what did he tell you?" Avery asks.

"He said that the meet was an ambush. That he only did what he had to do to protect himself."

"That's bullshit." Stiles spat. "We all know how conniving Gerard can be."

"Exactly but until anyone else speaks up, it's all we've got." Scott mumbles. "Anyway, before we left, I threatened him. I told him that if anyone else gets hurt because he lied that I'd be back for him. He seemed pretty scared."

The trio falls into a silence, Avery just barely finishing off her own bottle of juice. "Well, while you two converse over our problems, I'm going to shower."

Stiles and Scott wave her off as she gathers up some clothes before heading out into the hall and towards the bathroom. Minutes into their silent thought process, Scott breaks it.

"A phone is vibrating. I think it's Avery's."

Stiles glances around the room before finding his sister's phone sitting atop her desk. Without thinking twice about it, he lunges for the phone and answers it.

"Hello?"

" _How is she?"_ Elijah immediately asks.

"Uh, she's good." Stiles states. "Fine, actually."

" _Really?"_

"Yeah. There was a bit of a hiccup this morning but Ms. McCall rounded up the troops from school and we all hung out with her to keep her mind off of last night." Stiles tells him. "After that, she smiled and laughed. We just finished talking and she seems back to normal."

There's a moment of silence that Stiles think Elijah hung up but after looking at the phone's screen, he realizes they're still connected.  _"This is bad."_

"What? Why?!" Stiles nearly yelps. "She's laughing and smiling. Isn't that what we want?"

" _Actually, it's quite the opposite, Mr. Stilinski. With Avery, there are two things that she doesn't handle properly. That's death of someone close to her_ and _betrayal. What you've just witnessed, that's what my brother and I like to call the calm before the storm."_

Stiles and Scott share a wary look. "The calm before-"

" _With death, she'll grieve before finally accepting it. But when you least expect it- she'll lash out at those responsible."_

"Oh." Stiles frowns. "Well, two of the alphas actually attend high school with us. Is that going to be a problem?"

Once more, there's a moment of silence before Elijah sighs.  _"Just keep a close eye on her. Don't let her out of your sight."_

"Okay. Yeah. We'll keep her close."

" _Thank you. When Avery is available, let her know I'm here for her when she's ready to talk._

"Will do."

" _Goodbye, Mr. Stilinski."_

"Bye, Elijah."

With that, the phone call ends and Stiles shares a panicked look with his best friend before shrugging. "She's like a hundred and ten pounds. How much trouble can she cause?"


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: Not gonna lie, I enjoyed writing this chapter A LOT! It's probably my favorite one :) And I'm sorry if I didn't respond back to your review! I lost track of time and I was more worried about trying to finish the latest chapter I was writing so sorry if I didn't get back to you- but thanks for reading and reviewing!  
> Avery's outfits can be found [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/girl_who_knew_too_much/set?id=101397764).

**The Girl Who Knew Too Much**

Avery had just gotten out of a long and very much needed hot shower where she finally got the chance to actually enjoy it. For once, there was no rush and she got to take her time scrubbing, washing, and shaving. After getting out of said shower, she had the chance to pluck and moisturize before towel-drying her hair as much as she could.

When finally done, she glanced at the set of pajamas she had on from the reflection of the mirror and giggled. Her night shirt was two different shades of blue with the three sharks from Finding Nemo, and her night shorts were gray with different types of shark teeth. Just because she was sixteen didn't mean she couldn't enjoy any Disney clothing. And besides, she was only sleeping in them.

The second she curled her leg in to sit on her bed, her bedroom door swung open with Stiles and Scott rushing in without making too much noise. Her butt hadn't even had the pleasure of meeting her comfortable mattress before she was back on her feet once more.

"Allison called! We need to-" Scott trails off as his eyes fall down the length of her body. "What.. what are you wearing?"

Avery crosses her arms protectively over her chest as she pouts and glares at Scott while Stiles scoffs, mentally urging them to hurry the hell up. "They're my pajamas." She says as a goofy smile stretches across Scott's face. "Oh you have no room to talk, Mr. I Get Turned On In Closets."

Scott's amused demeanor instantly falls and now it's Stiles' turn to seem amused. "What? What does that me-"

"We need to go!" Scott cuts him off as his cheeks darken with a blush. "Allison and Lydia, remember?"

Stiles cocks an eyebrow at his friend but decides to drop it. They really needed to get a move on. "Right. Yeah. Put on shoes." He then says to his sister. "Something's happen. The girls need us."

Avery doesn't think twice before lunging into her closet and pulling out a pair of black TOMS to slip on her feet. The boys grin at her outfit but they don't say anything as they sneak down the stairs and out the front door to see what the big emergency is. Scott takes his dirt bike while Avery jumps into the passenger seat of her brother's jeep.

..

..

Upon parking at the school, Scott hurriedly rips off his helmet as Stiles and Avery jump out of the jeep.

"Where is she?" Stiles asks when he sees no-one.

Avery scans the area as Scott turns his attention to the right. "Over here." Allison answers as she ushers Lydia out from the shadows and into view.

"Lydia?" Stiles awaits for her to explain seeing as she's freaked out.

"It's the same thing. Same thing as the pool." She explains. "I got into the car- heading somewhere totally different- and ended up here. And you told me to call you if there's a dead body."

Avery's eyes widen. "Wh- you found a dead body?!" Stiles says.

"Not yet." She shakes her head.

"Not yet? What do you mean not yet? Lydia, you're supposed to call us after you find the dead body."

"Oh no, I'm not doing that again." Lydia waggles her finger at Stiles and Avery knows she shouldn't be smiling but she can't help it. The way Lydia said that was oddly amusing. "You find the dead body from now on."

Stiles balks. "How am I supposed to find the dead body? You're always the one to find the dead body." Stiles retorts and Avery's attention is now solely focused on Scott as he sniffs something in the air, turning his attention to point somewhere behind them. "Guys!  _I_ found the dead body."

Everyone's attention snaps to Scott as they slowly creep up behind him only to see the dead body laying atop the Beacon Hills High School stone sign. There's a dark liquid leaking down the front of the sign and as Avery, Allison, Stiles, Scott, and Lydia get closer- they realize it's blood.

"Oh, gross." Lydia grimaces. "I'm not getting any closer."

Avery offers her friend a feeble smile but continues to move forward with the boys and Allison. There's a sudden sharp intake of breath and everyone turns to Stiles. "What? What is it?" Avery asks.

She steps up shoulder to shoulder with her twin and peers up at him only to see his crestfallen expression. "It's Tara. She works with Dad."

"That's why she seemed familiar." Scott then realizes and Avery frowns as she realizes that this is the woman who sent her soup and wished her well.

"Guys.. we need to call this in." Stiles blurts. "We need to-"

"Okay. Okay." Scott shushes him when he can hear his friend freaking out. Everyone else doesn't even need to look at Stiles' face to see that he's freaking out. They could just hear it in his voice. "You guys go home.. I'll call it in. Say I saw the scene while I was riding around before getting home."

Stiles clenches his jaw, eyes sweeping over the body of the dead Deputy before he turns on his heel and marches back to his jeep. Avery offers everyone a feeble smile before jogging after her brother and as Stiles starts the jeep to take them back home, she sees Allison and Lydia getting into their cars before following them out of the parking lot.

* * *

The following morning, Avery is woken up by the smell of freshly brewed coffee. As she tiredly turns over in her bed, her eyes land on the green glow of numbers from her alarm clock that tells her it's just after six in the morning. After groaning and mumbling incoherently into her pillow, she pushes herself up and makes her way downstairs and towards the delicious smell.

As she pads her way into the kitchen, her hair is a tangled mess and blocking half her view but she doesn't bother fixing it. Through the tangled strands, she can see her Dad already in his uniform and scrambling about the kitchen in a hurry to fix his coffee.

"wasgoinon?" Avery mumbles tiredly as she leans against the kitchen counter.

All of John's movements come to a halt, silence reigning after all his clatter only to snort in amusement. "What happened to your hair?"

"The bedding attacked me. What happened to your face?" She casually insults him with such politeness.

John chuckles and continues on with preparing his coffee. "Same thing that'll happen to yours when you get old." Avery snorts at that and moves her hair out of the way. "I- uh- there's been another murder. I'll be working all day and night so don't expect me tonight for dinner."

"Oh." Avery mutters, making sure to seem surprised by the fact. "Okay."

"Yeah, so, do me a favor?" He asks as he finally clips a lid on his to-go mug.

"Anything."

"Make sure your brother gets to school."

"Alright but only if you cut back on curfew tonight. Danny has a recital and I want to surprise him with a get-together afterward."

"You drive a hard bargain, my friend." John grins as he pecks his daughter's forehead. "Just don't terrorize anyone tonight and you have a deal."

Avery follows her Dad to the front door and as John heads to his patrol car, he glances back around and calls out, "Nice jammies, by the way!"

She narrows her gaze on him as he grins at her but a second later, she lets a smile grace her lips as well. "Laugh it up, old man, but at least I'm not the one still using words like  _jammies_." And with that, she shut the door with her foot and relished in having the last word.

As she stumbles through the house and back into the kitchen, she sees that John left on the coffee pot and the remaining coffee is sitting there in the warmer. Seeing as she has stay awake to make sure Stiles gets to school on time, she quickly makes herself a cup and takes a seat at the table.

Two cups of coffee later and one cold shower, Avery is more alert than any other morning she'd woken up and is charging into Stiles' room.

"Wake up, wake up, wake up!" She hollers and grins manically when Stiles flails and falls out of bed. When he sits up and glares at her from the floor, she shrugs innocently. "We have school. Dad said to make sure you're on time."

"You're evil. It's early. Get out."

"Nope. No can do." Avery skips over to his desk chair and plops herself down in it. "Get your butt in the shower. I'm already dressed to impress now hurry up!"

Stiles narrows his eyes at her before sighing and standing up on his own two feet. As much as he wants to be mad at her for waking him up, he can't help but grin when he sees her sporting a baby blue and black plaid button down with it's sleeves pushed up to her mid-forearms.

"You know, I wear plaid better."

Avery rolls her eyes at him as she watches him collect some clean clothes, even pulling out a plaid throw over as well. "Yeah, yeah. Get in the shower so we can go pick up breakfast before we step foot inside high school hell."

As Stiles goes to take his quick morning shower, Avery goes back to her room to add some last minute touches to her outfit. She slips on a couple of Batman logo bracelets on her right wrist and after scanning her necklaces, she picks up an Amethyst necklace and clips it on around her neck. Taking one last look in the full body mirror she has attached to the inside of her closet door, Avery readjusts the white belt around her hips and checks her jean capris to make sure that's what she wants to wear. Finding nothing wrong with it, she quickly slips on low-top black converse and picks up her backpack from within her closet.

She's just about step out of her room with her backpack slung over one shoulder when she suddenly pauses.

She feels off. Like she's missing something.

Breathing out deeply while closing her eyes, she stands there a moment before glancing back into her room. Deciding not to go against her gut instinct, she hurriedly goes back to her closet and digs around the top shelf until her fingers land on a sleek casing. Pulling it down, she quickly opens it up and runs her fingers along three small daggers that are nestled in a velvet cushion. The night of Boyd's death quickly flashes in her mind as does the feeling of being helpless without any weapons on her. She doesn't want a repeat of that night and no matter that it's during school hours, she realizes she'll feel better with having something on her.

Even if the daggers are smaller than what she usually carries, they'll still cause the same damage any other dagger she has would.

..

..

Upon arriving at school, Avery and Stiles find a bunch of police cruisers and black SUVs littering the school parking lot. There's a large section around the school stone sign that is sectioned off and wrapped in yellow police tape, and a large blue tarp covering said sign.

As the Stilinski twins slowly climb out of the jeep, Avery's phone suddenly beeps with an incoming text. Pulling out her phone, she sees it's from Isaac.  _'Not coming to school. Scott has me on Allison duty.'_

Frowning down at the screen, she quickly types back  _'Okay. Be safe and if she threatens you, remind her I'm more skilled in kicking ass.'_

Almost instantaneously, Isaac replies with  _'Lol :)'_ , and Avery grins down at her phone.

"What has you all giddy?" Stiles teases when he sees his sister grinning.

"Isaac." She replies as they continue walking. "He told me he's not coming to school today."

"And that has you happy, why?" Stiles frowns. "The way you two are, it looks as if you're dating. Why would you be happy if he's not going to be here?"

Avery laughs and slows down their walk to a nearby pillar. "We are dating. Very slowly." She says. "And I'm all smiles because Scott has him tailing Allison today and I told him that if she threatens him, for him to remind her that I'm more skilled than her."

"But I thought you liked Allison?"

"I do." Avery rolls her eyes with a sigh. "We actually get along pretty well for her being a Hunter. I'm just teasing, Stiles."

When she glances up at her brother, she sees that he's no longer paying attention. Instead, his attention is solely focused on something behind her and he's using the pillar and her body as a shield. She curiously and discreetly peers over her shoulder only to find her Dad speaking to two official looking men. Realizing that her brother's doing a piss poor job on eavesdropping, she quickly brings forward her backpack and slips out her iPod from one of the pockets. She then turns on the iPod, inserting the ear-buds into her ears and presses pause on the current song.

Slightly turning to the side so one of her ears is turned towards her Dad, she sees from her peripheral vision when her Dad catches sight of them, pausing his conversation with the two men and starts making his way toward them. She quickly presses play on her device, letting Ryan Star's  _We Might Fall_ fill her ears, and watches as her brother hastily lifts his backpack to cover his head and attempts a get-away.

He fails miserably.

"Hey! Hey, hey, hey. Back it up." She hears her Dad scold Stiles, making her twin begrudgingly turn around. "I know what you're thinking." He says as he suspiciously glances at Avery before giving Stiles his attention once more. "I know you got all these ideas about patterns.. people dying in threes."

"Dad, murdered, okay?" Stiles corrects and Avery seems it safe enough to put her away her iPod since John doesn't seem to suspect her of eavesdropping on such an important case. "Sacrificed, actually."

John looks unimpressed. "I got half the state- including the FBI coming in on this. They're not getting away with killing one of our own."

"Dad, they killed Tara." Stiles murmurs softly so other students don't listen in. Avery doesn't even have to look up to know that her brother is really bothered by this particular sacrifice. "You know, how many times has she helped me with my math homework when I had to wait at the station for you?"

John sighs sadly and Avery decides to throw herself into the mix. "Tara?" She asks incredulously. "As in the lady who sent me soup last night and wished me well?!"

Avery doesn't have to try too hard to feign shock because honestly, she still shocked over finding the body last night. John sighs as he stares between his two kids. "Just, uh, get to class. Let the officials work this out and don't drag your sister down with you and your ideas." Stiles gasps at that insinuation and Avery has to bite back a grin. "Okay?"

John turns and takes his leave, leaving behind his twins to reluctantly get on with their day.

..

..

The school day seemed to have passed with a sluggish manner, and Avery noticed that either Scott or Stiles never left her side. She tried to play it off as their protective instincts getting the best of them but the way they watched her, she just knew it was for something else.

Nothing particularly gossip-worthy happened although she did notice Cora was attending school again. The only time she ever spoke with the female Hale was when Derek went missing and Cora called her but since Cora was in school with them, she figured that Derek was back. Avery had wanted to make sure that was the case but every time she saw the she-wolf, she either looked angry or too lost in her own world to approach without an argument breaking out so she let her be.

After a rather boring lunch period, she got a text from Isaac telling her that Allison held a blade to his throat when she found him lurking. She laughed at that and reminded him to be careful as well as not ticking the Huntress off.

Walking in to English, Avery found Lydia already seated and looking bored out of her mind. Since there was no assigned seating, she quickly took up the empty spot to Lydia's left and flashed her friend a dazzling smile. Seconds later, Stiles dropped in the seat in front of Lydia and Scott sat in front of Avery.

"Why do I get the feeling I'm being babysat?" Avery spoke with such calmness that both Scott and Stiles tensed at her words.

"Y-your're not." Stiles stammers. "We're just.. we're just-"

"Keeping an eye on you." Scott blurts and Stiles glares at his best friend.

"That's the same thing as being baby-sat." Lydia pipes up. "What's going on? Is someone after Avery now?"

"N-nothing-"

"Elijah told me to keep an eye on you." Stiles finally admits. "We're just doing our job."

"And why would he say something like that?"

Once again, Stiles and Scott share a brief look before both boys sigh. "Because," Scott turns to face her. "You lost a friend the other night. You witnessed his death, you mourned for hours, and now you act like nothing happened at all. Elijah said that this-"

"It's nothing." Avery cuts him off, clenching her jaw, and hardening her stare on the werewolf. "Drop it, Scott. I'm fine."

"Are you?" Stiles then cuts in. "You don't mourn the loss of someone that quickly and-"

"I said drop it." Avery suddenly snaps. She glares at Stiles now, ignoring the few students around them that she seemed to have caught their interest.

Before anything else could be said, the period bell rings and Ms. Blake walks in, shutting the door behind her and preparing for the start of class. When Avery sets her gaze on the board in front of them, Scott and Stiles take that as their cue to drop their discussion and pay attention.

As Ms. Blake drones on about the day's lesson, Lydia finally gets bored and opens up her binder to a clean sheet of paper. Avery is pretty sure she knows everything that Ms. Blake is telling them so she sets her left elbow on her desk and uses her hand to prop her head up as she stares at Lydia doodling. She watches as Lydia does a rough sketch of a dead-looking tree before using her pen to shade in parts of it in.

Sometime during Ms. Blake's speech, she started walking around the class and Avery is snapped out of her thoughts when the teacher ends up at the back of the class. "Idioms, analogies, metaphors, and similes- all tools the writer uses to tell their story." She says as she starts walking up the aisle of desks, pausing briefly when she catches Lydia mid-doodle. "Lydia. I wasn't aware you had some hidden talents."

Lydia pauses, picking up her pen as she plasters on a smile and looks up. "You and every guy I've ever dated."

"Oh, um-" Ms. Blake nervously grins as Avery chuckles lowly at their teachers misfortune of ever calling out Lydia Martin. "-well that was.. an idiom, by the way." Lydia's smile falls and she goes back to doodling as Ms. Blake continues walking forward. "Idioms are something of a secret to the people who know the language or the culture." She says as she comes to a stop once more, turning around and locking eyes with Stiles, Scott, and then Avery. "There are phrases that only make sense if you know key words. Saying jump the gun is meaningful only if you know about the starting gun in a race. Or a phrase like  _seeing the whole board._ "

"Chess." Stiles suddenly mutters, catching Avery's and Ms. Blake's attention.

"That's right, Stiles." Ms. Blake beams down at him. "Do you play?"

"Uh, no. My father does."

Ms. Blake nods at him before turning around and continuing on with the lesson. "Now when does an idiom become a cliché?"

Avery zones her out as Scott twists in his seat to face Stiles. "I think I can get to Ethan." He tells him. "I'm pretty sure I can make him talk."

"What do you want to do that for?" Stiles murmurs, his eyes glancing back at Avery when he notices that she's listening to them.

"The druids were emissaries, right? So what if the Darach was an emissary to the alphas?"

Avery perks up at that, mentally scolding herself that she hadn't thought of that before. "Okay, first of all," Stiles mumbles. "-I can't believe that we've gotten to the point where a sentence like  _what if the Darach is an emissary to the alphas_ actually makes sense to me. And second of all, we're going to have a huge problem getting to Ethan."

"What's that?"

"Going through Aiden."

Avery sucks in a breath at hearing the alphas name, both Scott and Stiles turning towards her. Ethan doesn't bother her as much but hearing  _Aiden_ , it's like her vision immediately turns red and she has this sudden fury burning in her veins.

"Ever since he's been back in school," Stiles starts off slowly, eyes narrowing in wonder at his sister, wondering if this is what Elijah warned him about. "-they're always together. How are we going to separate them again?"

Scott and Stiles stare at each other and as one, they both turn in their seats and set their sight on Lydia.

"No." Avery scoffs at them, having heard what they were talking about and what conclusion they immediately came to.

Lydia looks up, her eyes darting between all of them. "What now?"

"They need a distraction." Avery spits angrily. "They want you to distract Aiden while they try to butter up Ethan for whatever reason they have."

"We need her to." Stiles tries to explain to his sister. "If Ethan-"

"I don't care." Avery grits out, glaring at her brother. "Aiden killed Boyd. There's no way in hell Lydia is going anywhere near him."

"Yeah, but-"

"I said no."

"I'll do it." Lydia interjects with a shrug.

"What?!" Avery then explodes, startling the entire class and the teacher.

"Ms. Stilinski, is there a problem?" Scott, Stiles, and Lydia all act as if no words were traded between them and ignore Avery as she crashes and burns.

"Yeah." She huffs, rolling her eyes at her three friends. "I just started my period. May I be excused to the bathroom?" Stiles starts choking on air at his sister's bluntness, students snickering behind their hands. At Ms. Blake's blank expression and quick nod, Avery collects her things and stands up only to have the snickers get louder. "Oh grow up, children." She snaps at the entire class.

Avery doesn't look back as she exits the classroom with all her belongings, her temper flaring as she stomps to the bathroom to spend the rest of the class. She doesn't stop at the closest bathroom, instead she goes to the one that's on the opposite side of the school. And once inside, she throws her backpack against the wall and leans against the sinks as she tries to push down her anger.

Her hands grip either side of the porcelain sink, her head hanging as she concentrates on her breathing. The door swings open and instead of looking up to see the intruder, she grits her teeth and prays that the student knows better than to start asking questions at this moment.

"You're positively radiating anger." A familiar voice echoes in the quietness of the room. "What happened? Found out you're failing a class?"

"So not the time, Cora." Avery sighs.

Instead of goading the teen, Cora actually seems intrigued by Avery's state. "What happened? You're like.. really pissed."

Avery grips the sink tighter, her knuckles going white at the grip she has. "My idiot brother and his even more idiotic best friend." She seethes. "They're using Lydia to distract Aiden while they go have a nice little chat with his counterpart."

There's a moment of silence and when Avery looks up, she sees Cora clenching her jaw and willing away the yellow glow of her eyes. "When?"

"When the bell rings, I guess." Avery admits and she just knows Cora's planning something if the cold calculating look in her eyes is anything to go by. "Why? What are you thinking?"

"Boyd was our friend.  _My_  pack mate and they're just going to throw Lydia at him and let her sex him up as if anything didn't happen?!"

"My thoughts exactly." Avery dead-pans. "I told them no but Lydia agreed."

"Where are they meeting?" The she-wolf immediately asks. "If they're splitting up the twins, then this is my opportunity."

"Opportunity for what?"

Cora eyes the teen up and down, and when she deems Avery okay, she explains. "I think it's time someone avenges Boyd's death. If they won't, I will."

Avery lets that information sink in as Cora continues to stare at her, and when she doesn't make a move to stop her, Cora turns to exit the bathroom. "Wait." Avery calls out. "Boyd was my friend, too. If you're doing this, I want in."

Cora glances over her shoulder, smugly smirking when she sees Avery stand just a bit taller and hardening her facial features as if preparing for a fight. With a nod of approval from the werewolf, Avery goes back to her backpack, unzips it, and pulls out the sleek black case she had packed earlier in the morning.

When Cora's curiosity gets the best of her, she creeps closer and takes a look at what Avery is pulling down her sleeves for. Avery sets the case on the sink, Cora getting a closer look at a lone dagger and reaching in to trace her finger along the runes inscribed on the blade.

"Is this what you used on me that one night?" She asks as the teen hides the daggers in her sleeves next to her wrists.

"These are smaller versions of that one blade." She answers. "Why? You like them?"

"They're fascinating." Cora admits. "I've never seen magical objects like this before."

"Yeah, well, if we live through attacking Aiden- I'll have some delivered for you."

Cora snorts and snaps the lid shut to the case, handing it to Avery as she hides it back in her bag. "Sounds good to me."

The two girls share a grin just as the bell rings and both hurry out of the bathroom in search of where Lydia would lead Aiden to be distracted.

..

..

Once they find Lydia and Aiden's secret hiding spot- which just so happens to be the Coach's office in the boys locker room- Avery and Cora sneak closer to where the commotion of two fumbling teens are coming from.

When Avery sneaks a peak over her shoulder at Cora, she sees that the she-wolf is trying to control her fury. With eyes glowing yellow, a mouth full of fangs, and nails transforming into claws- Avery lets Cora take the lead as she falls back. Cora is staring angrily at the door, breathing heavily and when she glances at Avery, she nods towards the shadows for Avery to hide.

"Wait until I attack." She murmurs quietly as to not alert the alpha of their presence.

Avery doesn't respond, choosing to nod her understanding as she lets the daggers slide out and grips each one tightly in her hands. Cora sees this and smirks at her before setting her attention back on the door where Aiden and Lydia are having their fun.

One second, Cora seems ready to pounce and the next, she's tilting her head curiously to the side as she stares at the door. Reaching forward and touching her shoulder, Avery gains the wolf's attention.  _"What's going on?"_ She mouths.

" _They're talking."_  Cora mouths back.

Cora seems to be listening and then before Avery can ask what they're talking about, Cora lunges forward and the sound of nails on glass reaches her ears. As Cora rushes to hide herself, Avery slinks further back into the shadows and readies herself.

The door opens and Avery holds her breath. "Derek!"

"Aiden, stop, please." She hears Lydia beg.

"I'm right here, Derek." Aiden continues and Avery smirks to herself. He doesn't even know that Derek isn't even in the same vicinity as them.

"I'll scream." Lydia threatens and Avery can hear the fear in Lydia's voice.

"You want a fight, Derek? Come and get me!"

Without thinking, Avery takes a step forward but before she can even do anything, she sees Cora tackle Aiden with a groan into the lockers.

She growls with a mouth full of fangs and slashes Aiden across his chest with her claws. He doesn't seemed phased by it, hell it doesn't even look as if he's trying to throw her off but as Cora gets a few more slashes in to where Aiden's shirt is torn and chest bloody, he's finally had enough as he lets his eyes glow red.

With a fierce growl, he catches Cora's incoming arm by the wrist and using his free hand to grip her by the throat. With a yelp from Cora and a roar from Aiden, he turns and tosses her across the room- her body sliding under the sinks.

Avery then takes that as her cue, running forward from the shadows when Lydia finally sees her.

"Avery, don't!"

Aiden turns just in time to catch Avery with her arms held above her head in an 'X' like manner, but doesn't catch her arms until she brings them down and slices him across his chest and abdomen. He snarls threateningly at her, ignoring the blades in her hands as he grips her by the throat as well- tossing her backward with enough force that when her back collides with the lockers, her breath is knocked out from her.

Cora groans from her spot on the floor, slowly getting on her hands and knees, blindly making her way towards Avery. When Aiden sets his sights on her once more, he growls menacingly as he walks over to a rack of weights and lifts one up easily.

Lydia quickly pieces it together and suddenly fears for the she-wolf. "Aiden, stop!"

He growls once more, lifting the weight above his head and when Cora leans up on her knees to look at him, he brings the weight down across her face.

"Cora!" Lydia shouts, falling to her knees by the fallen beta.

Aiden growls and lifts the weight once more but before he can do any more damage, Scott and Ethan are stopping him as Stiles falls down by Cora and Lydia.

"Aiden, you can't do this!" Ethan yells at his twin once the weight is no longer in his hands.

"They came at me!" He snarls.

And it's then that everyone's gaze follows Aiden's when he glances back at Avery who's rubbing the back of her head. "It doesn't matter!" Ethan replies once Scott makes it clear he's going to check on the human. "Kali gave Derek until the next full moon. You can't touch him or her," He says as he glances back at Cora. "-let alone their human."

Aiden finally calms down enough so that his wolf features bleed back to human features. Stiles, Lydia, Ethan, and Scott are all looking up warily at him- Lydia looking as if she can't believe she associated herself with him when they all hear a slow chuckle erupt from Avery's mouth.

"Scott, is she okay?" Stiles calls out. "Is she delirious? I swear, Aiden, if you-"

"I'm done playing nice." Avery suddenly spits out, her eyes direct solely on Aiden. "If your wolf-bitch lays one clawed toe on Derek or any one of my friends, I will make sure she dies a very slow and painful death."

The entire room is silent as the threat lingers in the air, Avery's eyes on fire as she continues to glare at Aiden. Every wolf in the room can practically feel the rage and fury coming from the petite teen that there is no doubt in their mind that she means what she said. With nothing left to be said, both Aiden and Ethan back out of the room though their eyes never leave Avery's form.

Once the alpha twins are out of sight, Cora groans as she attempts to sit up and Avery cringes with every little movement. Cora doesn't seem to be doing well and ends up falling back down on her back and Stiles looks worried.

"Hey, guys, I think she's pretty hurt."

Avery immediately sits up, flinching when she can feel the ache in her body. "What? She should be healing."

Stiles' gaze then snaps to her, his eyes narrowing in anger. "And you! What the hell were you thinking attacking an alpha? He could've killed you!"

"Yeah, well, he didn't." Avery snaps back. "None of you were doing anything and you," Her gaze darts to Lydia. "-you're groping him the locker room. I thought you had more class than that." She spat.

Lydia didn't bother firing back, the red-head knowing full well that her friend was just acting out at the moment. "Don't blame her." Scott tries to soothe Avery. "We're the ones who put her up to it. We needed to talk to Ethan on his own to see if we were right about him."

"Right about what?"

"That he didn't want to kill Boyd." Scott tells her. "In our brief little discussion, we learned that both Ethan and Aiden feel like they're in debt to Deucalion but their loyalty is wavering now that Lydia and Danny are in the picture."

"And why would they feel like they're in debt, huh?" Avery scoffs.

"Because they weren't like Kali and Ennis." Stiles answers her. "Aiden and Ethan were the Omegas of a pack that an alpha took in. They were the bitches of their own Pack- a pack that was made up of nothing but killers. Deucalion found them and taught them to control their morphing technique."

"And as one, they took down their entire Pack leaving their alpha for last." Scott finished. "So they feel loyal to Deucalion but as you can see, that loyalty is wavering as the days go by."

Before Avery can reply back to that, Cora groans once more and Avery tries her best to stand up. Scott grabs her by the arm to help her but Avery slaps his hand away. "Don't touch me. I'm still mad at you three right now."

He reluctantly backs off, watching as Avery limps her way towards Cora and helps the beta stand on her own two feet, steadying the werewolf when she sways before walking her towards the sinks.

Cora grimaces at her reflection, moving her hair to the side to see where the blood leaking from her hairline is coming from. As she does that, Avery gathers some paper towels, wetting a small portion of it before handing it off to her companion.

"You okay?" Scott asks as Cora cleaned up some of the blood.

"She doesn't look okay." Lydia states when Cora doesn't reply.

Cora rolls her eyes. "I'll heal." She stands up straighter, tossing the napkins in the sink only to stumble backwards.

"Whoa." Stiles and Avery reach forward to steady the werewolf but Cora throws off Stiles' grip and gently eases out of Avery's.

"I said I'm fine."

"Do you realize how suicidal crazy that was?" Stiles asks both Cora and Avery. Avery who is avoiding all their gazes as she stands shoulder to shoulder with Cora. "What were you thinking going after them?"

"I did it for Boyd.  _We_ did it for Boyd." Cora snaps at them. "None of you were doing anything."

Scott nods. "We're trying."

"And you're failing." Cora tells him. "You're just a bunch of stupid teenagers running around thinking that you can stop people from getting killed." She looks at each Scott, Stiles, and Lydia who all are speechless. "But all you do is show up late. All you really do is find the bodies."

Once again- Scott, Stiles, and Lydia share a look and Cora huffs at them before turning to leave. "She's definitely a Hale." Stiles sighs and as Avery rolls her eyes and turns to follow Cora, a hand clamps down on her shoulder. "Oh no you don't." Stiles shakes his head at her. "I'll make sure she gets home."

Stiles pushes passed all of them, leaving an agitated Avery behind with Scott and Lydia. As Avery exhales loudly, Scott opens his mouth to say something but Avery's phone beeping stalls him. Quickly taking out said phone, Avery groans as she reads the incoming text.

"What is it?" Scott asks.

"Remember how Allison had a hunch that her Dad knew something?"

"Yeah." Scott immediately blurts, glad that she didn't explode on him.

"Well, she and Isaac went back into his office to prove that Mr. Argent isn't the Darach slitting people's throats."

"Did they prove his innocence?" Lydia softly asks since this was news to her.

Avery shakes her head with a sigh. "Not exactly. Instead, they found the Celtic symbol of a five-fold knot carved into his desk. Each circle had a specific word written into it.  _Virgins, Warriors, Healers, Philosophers,_ and  _Guardians._ "

Lydia gasps. "Does that mean-"

"It means that Mr. Argent isn't as innocent as we thought." Avery cut her off.

"That definitely makes him a suspect now." Scott sighs. "Especially since Ethan told us that all the other alphas emissaries are dead. All except for Deucalion's who just so happens to be Morrell."

As the three teens think about what that could mean, Avery heaves a sigh. "I'm skipping last period and going for a walk." Scott looks ready to intervene but she holds him off by raising her hand at him. "I'm still pissed off with you throwing Lydia to the wolves, and for you actually going through with it." She then aims at Lydia. "If you want me to calm down, I need to be alone. So don't bother me unless you want me to throat punch you."

Scott snaps his mouth shut and silently nods as Lydia turns around to pick something up. As Avery watches her, she sees Lydia picking up her forgotten backpack and one of her daggers from the ground. She takes it with a forced smile, unzipping her backpack and dropping one dagger in as Lydia drops the other in.

Without another word, she leaves them in the locker room and sets her mind on roaming the school grounds.

_.._

_.._

The sun is beating down on Beacon Hills as Avery finally manages to break free outside. The bell had just rung inside so it felt great to not be seated inside a stuffy classroom and listening to a teacher drone on and on about how to run a household. Why she chose to take Home Ec. as a class, she'd never know.

Avery somehow finds herself walking the entire length of the football field, letting the cool gentle breeze blow over her and soothe her nerves. She knew why Scott and Stiles did what they did- leave it to 'lijah to tell them everything- but she couldn't help her reaction. Her brother and Scott had been right to babysit her throughout the day but in the end, it didn't work in their favor because she still lashed out and got her ass handed to her.

She wasn't paying attention to where she was walking, her head tilted down towards the ground as she focused on not grimacing every time a ping of pain sparked in her back or head. Aiden had really put a lot of strength into tossing her into the lockers and the weight of her backpack was not helping any.

Her eyes spot the pair of black boots in front of her too late and as a pair of hands grip her upper arms to keep her from running into them, Avery straightens up before she could stop herself and groans.

"What happened to you?"

Avery's eyes snap open at the sound of Derek's voice, the teen having to fight the urge to roll her eyes at the worry in his eyes. "Hi, Derek. Thanks for letting me know you were back and safe, you jerk." She steps out of his hold and curiously looks him up and down. "What are you doing here? Checking up on your lover?" She tries to tease.

"Don't deflect." He rolls his eyes with a sigh. "What happened?"

"I got into a fight is what happened." She tells him because there is no use in lying to him or attempting to deflect again. "And I got my ass handed to me."

Derek takes a moment to stare directly into her eyes while listening to her heartbeat at the same time. "You're skilled in fighting. Why do I get the feeling there's more to this story?"

Avery nervously adjusts her book bag only to grimace in the process. "I got into a fight with an alpha."

"What?!"

"It was only after he practically bashed your sister's head in!" Avery quickly blurts but then realizes her mistake when Derek's eyes flash red. "But don't worry! Scott and Ethan stopped it. Stiles is driving Cora home and I'm out here.. cooling off." She shrugs.

"And pray tell why Ethan would stop his brother from beating my sister?"

"Because he didn't want to kill Boyd." Avery dead-pans. "It's a long story. Ask Scott about it."

She makes a move to brush pass Derek but he catches her by the backpack. "Why are you limping? What did Aiden do to you?"

"I got thrown into the lockers." Derek shakes his head at her. "After I cut him with my pretty little daggers."

He continues to shake his head though now he's fighting off a grin. "Let me see." He says as he reaches for her arm, grabbing her by the wrist and shoving up her sleeve. "I'm only doing this because you amuse me. Next time, you won't be so lucky."

"What are yo-" Avery trails off when he makes skin to skin contact, gripping her by the wrist as she watches black veins appear at his own wrist and travel upward before disappearing. "What did you do?" She asks when she realizes she can straighten up without any pangs of pain hurting her.

"I siphoned out majority of your pain." He tells he as he drops her arm. "Get back to the school. The day is almost finished."

Avery is still in awe- being able to experience the pain siphoning first hand- and when she finally looks up, Derek is gone. With a scoff, she chuckles to herself before calling out, "I lived with vampires! Your disappearing act doesn't fascinate me."

And when she turns on her heel, Derek's deep laughter reaches her ears as she makes her way back to the school.

Avery takes her sweet time getting back to the building and before she even has a chance to step foot inside, her text tone goes off. After pulling out her phone and seeing Stiles' name lighting up the screen, she hesitates and wonders if she should read it or ignore him seeing as she was still slightly pissed but not much.

With a calming breath, she opens the text message only to read:  _'I'm telling Dad everything. Allison said the Darach was going after Guardians which could possibly mean Law Enforcement. I plan on having Cora wolfing out if he doesn't believe a word I say.'_

Avery gapes at her screen for a good two minutes, her mind whirling as she tries to think up a reason to not tell their Dad. She can't think of any.

_'Okay. Let me know how it goes.',_ is what she replies with and shoves her phone back in her pocket.

The hallways are empty when she gets inside and her mind is occupied of thoughts about how John is going to handle knowing everything about the supernatural realm. She wonders if he's going to reject the idea right away, wondering where along in his life did he go wrong with raising Stiles- or if he's going to be open-minded about it all and give them a chance to really show him proof.

She has no destination in mind as she walks, letting her fingers trail along the closed lockers and when the final bell rings, she snaps out of her thoughts. She's standing in the hallway where the Guidance Counselor door can be seen and a second later, Scott comes out.

He seems worried and tired, and looks like he has no idea what he's doing.

"Scott?" His head snaps in Avery's direction as the teen takes a few steps towards him. "You okay there?"

"Uh, yeah. Yeah." He says. "Have you heard from Allison?"

"No. Just from Stiles who talked to Allison and told him that telling our Dad about what was going on needed to be done."

Scott nods as he gestures for her to walk with him. "Come with me. I had a talk with Morrell and found out some interesting things."

He doesn't look back to see if Avery is following him but he does hear her sigh. Seeing as her ride to school was her brother, Avery follows Scott in hopes of hearing what he has to say and then asking for a ride home.

Scott starts taking the stairs two at a time and with a roll of her eyes, Avery follows him to the top level of their school. "Alright, speak. What did you learn?"

"Morrell isn't the one sacrificing people." He immediately blurts.

"Okay." She drawls. "And that was so important why? You could've told me that when everyone was back together."

"No, I know." Scott shakes his head. "But the other thing she told me, the things she was saying- I, I don't-"

"Whoa, hey." Avery held up hands, palm out and cutting Scott off. "What's going on?" She asks softly when she can see how worried Scott really is about this.

"S-she was talking about Deucalion and how he wants a True Alpha in his pack. He thinks I'm it."

Avery's brow furrow in confusion. "But you're only a beta."

"That's what I practically said." Scott sighs. "But she said that I was well on my way. A True Alpha is someone who doesn't need to steal or take the power from someone else. They rise purely on their strength of character. By virtue, and sheer force of will."

"Your eyes." Avery tells him. "The night of the fight in the abandoned mall. Your eyes turned red when you took on Ennis."

"And at the Motel." Scott admits with a frown. "I- I didn't say anything because I figured it was the Motel playing tricks on me but I was studying my eyes and they flashed red. But they only did it that once."

"Fuck." Avery groans. "Okay, so, what does that have to do with anything. Why does Deucalion want a True Alpha?"

"Because he's obsessive. She said he wants me in his Pack because he's fascinated  _and_  threatened by me. If he can't have me in his Pack, he's going to destroy me."

"So what, he's going to kill you?!" Avery whisper shouts because yeah, stairways echo.

"No. He wants to make me a killer. If I kill someone, it cancels out every other attribute that would make me a true alpha."

"So it's either join his pack or become a killer."

"Yeah but neither of those is going to happen." He assures her. "I will find a way out of this."

"Well fuck." Avery grumbles as she lets her backpack meet the nearest wall before she slid down to the floor.

Seconds later, Scott is seated at the top of the stairwell with her. "Yeah. So, um, don't say anything yet. Not until we figure out what's going on with this Darach thing."

"Whatever." Avery shakes her head before planting her elbows on her knees, using her hands to cradle her head. "That's your problem. When that comes into light, it's on you."

Scott takes a moment for that to sink in. "Thanks.. I guess."

Avery snorts and starts chuckling, and soon enough- Scott's chuckling with her. It's the end of the school day and instead of heading on home, they're just lingering about. When their laughter finally subsides, Avery looks up at Scott with a grin.

"So, you want to do your best friend's little sister a favor and give her a ride home?" She playfully bats her eyelashes at him while giving him her cheesiest smile.

"Depends." Scott huffs a laugh. "Is she going to throat punch me anytime before or after the ride?"

"No. I'm totally over that already."

"Then fine. Let's go." Scott says as he stands up, offering a hand to Avery and pulling the teen up to her own feet as they set off for downstairs.

They walk down the stairs in comfortable silence, neither teen in a hurry to get off of school grounds. When they get to the first level and make their way into the hallway, they immediately realize something is up. A bunch of students are lingering around, majority of them murmuring about Lydia Martin and a missing teacher.

Scott and Avery share a confused glace at one another and when they spot teachers and other officials coming in through the front entrance, Avery grips his arm. "Find her."

Scott numbly nods, honing in his hearing for Lydia's voice or even her heartbeat. As the days passed, he had learned to differentiate between his friend's voices and heartbeats.  _"That's not going to do anything! I told you he's gone."_

"Found her." Scott mumbles as he grips Avery's hand, holding tight as he drags her off into a sprint towards Lydia's voice.

" _Like the others- taken."_

There's a bunch of students gathered outside one of the classrooms but Scott easily pushes his way through with Avery right behind him and by Ethan who had appeared from out of nowhere.

Inside the classroom, there's three other adults in the room- one male and two females with walkie talkies and clipboards. Aiden is standing by Lydia's side as the red-head shares words with Ms. Blake.

Avery tenses upon seeing Aiden but there's less rage in her and when Scott glances at her, she shakes her head at him. "I'm fine. Now's not the time."

He nods at her, agreeing with her words and goes back to the issue at hand. "Look, we're just trying to understand, okay? All we know is that Mr. Westover didn't show up for class." Ms. Blake tries to soothe Lydia.

"And the last time that happened was Mr. Harris. Anyone heard from him lately? He's gone." Lydia smart mouths the teacher. She turns around, out of Aiden's hold and points at the chalk board. "And he's going to be the second murder."

Avery, Scott, and Ethan then realize that the chalk board is sporting the celtic symbol of the five-fold knot, and the number two written inside one of the circles. "Lydia, you wrote that number." Ms. Blake says.

"Okay, fine." Lydia replies instantly and with a gulp, she confesses, "I'm psychic."

Everyone in hearing distance starts snickering, all except the werewolves and Avery who look on sympathetically at her. Even Ms. Blake looks like she wants to laugh. "You're psychic?" She says almost disbelievingly.

"I'm  _something_!" Lydia snaps hysterically.

The entire room goes quiet and everyone stares at Lydia as if she's lost her mind. The red-headed teen looks to be near tears as she glances at everyone around her.

"A deputy and a teacher?" Ethan suddenly voices. "What's the pattern?"

"I don't know." Scott admits.

Lydia finally rushes towards her friends, hands trembling. "I- I don't want to be here anymore. Can one of you stay with me?"

"Yeah. I'll- I'll stay with you." Avery assures her. "I have nothing else to do."

Lydia nods and gulps, turning back around to say something to Aiden. Avery's gaze slides passed them, over to Ms. Blake who seems to be watching them with wary eyes. Giving her teacher a brief smile, Avery grabs Lydia by the elbow. "Come on. Do you want me to drive or are you good?"

"I- I'm good." Lydia assures her as Scott leads them from the room and away from prying eyes and ears. "Thanks for doing this."

"No problem." Avery waves it off before looking at Scott. "If you hear anything, let me know, okay?"

"Yeah. Same goes for you. Keep me updated."

"Will do."

Avery then leads a still shell-shocked Lydia out of the school building and towards her friend's car. They silently get in, Lydia immediately shutting off the radio upon turning on the car's engine and easily backing out of her parking space. Avery doesn't know what to say but one look at Lydia and the way her jaw keeps ticking let's Avery know that nothing is currently up for discussion. So in order to keep herself busy, she takes out her phone and texts Allison.

_'Mr. Westover is missing.'_

It takes a few minutes but sure enough, Allison replies with  _'We're on it. Isaac and I are going to be on stakeout duty.'_

Lydia gets to her house faster than Avery thought possible and the two teens get out of the car without trading words. It isn't until they're inside the home that Lydia finally breaks her silence.

"Okay so what don't I know?"

"Huh?"

"What else is going on?" Lydia demands. "You were texting someone in the car and please, just tell me whatever it is so I can get my mind off what happened earlier."

"Oh, okay, well-" Avery sighs. "It kind of coincides with what happened earlier so I'm not sure you want to hear it." Lydia groans and plops down on the sofa, her head falling into hands. "Allison thinks her Dad is the one kidnapping and sacrificing people. He has this map in his office where he's been marking where the people are being taken and where they are found. Apparently he's been acting fishy so she and Isaac are doing a stakeout tonight."

"Oh, god." Lydia mumbles. "I so didn't need to hear that. What is this town coming to when we can't even trust our friend's parents anymore?!" Avery's phone beeps causing the teen to hurriedly open the incoming text. "What? Is that Allison? Is she telling you that her Dad is the guilty party?"

"No." Avery mutters as she quickly re-reads the text. "Stiles just told me that our Dad didn't believe his werewolf story."

"What?! You told him?!"

"And Cora collapsed when he told her to wolf out and prove that he was telling the truth."

"Cora?! But she was healing, wasn't she?" Lydia yelps. "Why did-"

"I don't know!" Avery cut her off, quickly texting Derek what had happened and that his sister was on her way to the hospital. "I don't know."

..

..

The two girls settle quickly into a tense silence, Lydia turning on the TV to fill the air with noise. Neither girl spoke of anything, choosing to blankly stare at the Food Network channel and let time slip by them. The sun soon fell and Avery had yet to hear from anyone. She sighed sadly knowing full well that she wasn't going to be able to take Danny out like she had planned if she was stuck with Lydia for the remainder of the night.

On right on cue, just as if she had jinxed herself, her phone goes off. Both Lydia and Avery's gaze meets, and the Stilinski teen grudgingly takes her phone out to read the text. It's from Isaac.

_'Where are you? Chris is off the hook. We found the Darach and the teacher but it was too late. Turns out Mr. Argent had been tracking the Darach as well. It's going after Philosophers- teachers. Teachers who are all on their way to the school.'_

Lydia paled as Avery read the text aloud. "W-we need to do something."

"And we will." Avery agrees with her. "Let's go. Scott should be at the school if that's where Allison, Isaac, and Mr. Argent are headed."

As Lydia starts gathering up her jacket and keys, Avery follows on her heels while shooting off a quick text to Isaac.  _'I'll meet you there.'_

..

..

The drive to the school is rather fast, Avery having had rummaged through her bag for the daggers she had in there. Once found, she realizes she doesn't really have anywhere to put them other than up her sleeves or in her back pockets. She slides one in the back pocket of her capris and the other up her sleeve- holding it there by holding her wrist at an awkward angle so it doesn't slip back out.

It takes a minute for the girls to find an available parking space but when they do, Avery and Lydia are both scrambling out of the car and sprinting towards the auditorium. Luckily for them, the doors aren't locked so they easily make their way in only to find the auditorium packed.

Scott is standing near the exit, staring intently to his right and when Avery follows his gaze, she sees that he's staring at Aiden and Ethan who look to be in a tense conversation. Ms. Morrell is there also, the Counselor acting as a superb faculty staff member and passing out fliers to the parents while also making sure they were okay with the seating.

Scott suddenly glances over his shoulder when he senses their presence. "I thought you were going home." He says more to Lydia than Avery.

"We did." Avery mutters at the same time Lydia says, "I can't stay there." She says softly. "I don't know why I'm the one that keeps finding the bodies but maybe.. if I just stop trying to fight it, I'd find them before it happens. Maybe with enough time.. for someone like you.. to do something about it."

Scott nods. "You get me the time and I'll do something about it." He tells her seriously. "I swear to God, I will."

Lydia breathes a sigh of relief and when Avery sees Scott glance down, she glances down with him and she spots Lydia squeezing his hand- Scott squeezing back in comfort.

Avery's phone vibrates in her pocket and when she takes it out, she sees Stiles' name. Quickly opening up the text, she reads  _'Dad just blew up at me in the hospital. Cora still isn't healing and when I tried to get him to believe me, he lost it. I'm on my way to you.'_ She frowns at her brother's words, not bothering to text back since he's coming to her anyway.

The lights in the auditorium slightly dim and the concert begins- Avery, Lydia, and Scott keeping an eye out for anything out of the norm. The music sounds echoe hauntingly around the room and Avery can feel her nerves kicking in. Her thumb flies up to her mouth and she's soon biting the corner of her nail as she keeps her eyes peeled.

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Lydia checking her phone before looking up towards where the alpha twins are seated. Avery looks at Aiden, seeing the twin turn in his seat and nodding at Lydia before she hears Lydia muttering, "It better be."

Lydia suddenly leaves from her spot, Avery turning to catch her and ask her where she's going but the doors opening stall her. Chris Argent walks in- though his attention is immediately zoned in on the audience- followed by Allison who quickly smirks at her and then at someone over her shoulder who Avery presumes to be Scott. Isaac walks in last- letting the door close softly behind him as to not interrupt the concert for anyone- and grins at Avery.

For some reason, just seeing him feels like a weight has been lifted off her shoulders and Avery propels herself forward into his arms. "Whoa, you okay?" He murmurs. "Did something happen?"

"No." Avery assures him as she briefly hugs him. "Today's just been kind of crazy. Cora's in the hospital because she's not healing and then Stiles told our Dad about werewolves and he's not believing him. I- I just have a bad feeling about tonight."

"Ssh. It's okay. We're all here now." Isaac mumbles as he presses his lips to her forehead before cradling her face in the palms of his hands. "We're so close to finding out who the Darach is and ending it all."

"Mhm." She quickly nods. "I just- I don't know." Avery sighs.

"It's fine. Go back with Scott. I'm still on Allison duty." He tells her. "And then when this is all over, you can tell me exactly why Cora is in the hospital." Avery snorts, wrinkling her nose when she sees Isaac grinning at her. "Yeah, Scott's been keeping me informed as well. Do you know if anyone is with Cora?"

"Derek should be. I ran into him earlier. We talked and then I texted him saying that Cora was being admitted."

"Okay. Good. Now go keep watch with Scott while I go with the Argents. Try not to start any fights, yeah?"

"No promises." Avery grins at him, letting Isaac press a kiss to her forehead once more before letting him go.

Avery turns to go join back up with Scott but as she starts to listen in to the concert again, she realizes that it sounds more haunting than it did before. Students who are sitting up on stage are slowly starting to look as if they're in a trance and are humming along with the instruments. Scott takes a step forward and as Avery goes to follow, a hand clamps down on her shoulder.

Raising her fist and turning, she finds her brother holding his hands up in surrender. She blows out a sigh of relief and lowers her fist just as Scott steps back to join them. The music gets a little bit louder and a line of students on stage start chanting.

The same chant that had recorded on the music teacher's phone when he had been abducted.

Avery, Scott, and Stiles look out into the crowd- the three of them noticing that they're not the only ones who realize something is wrong. Aiden and Ethan are starting to look around in wonder as well as Ms. Morrell who's doing a better job at being discreet than the twins are.

"Hey, where's Lydia?" Stiles suddenly voices.

Avery and Scott's gaze snap up at each other- both teens turning to look at the set of double doors before lunging for the exit.

"Lydia?" Stiles and Avery call out once outside.

"Lydia!" Scott hollers.

The parking lot is empty of any people and Scott takes a moment to look around.

"Anything?" Stiles asks as Avery immediately pulls out her phone.

Scott shakes his head.

"She's not answering texts." Avery tells them, her voice shaking.

"What do we do?" Stiles wonders. "Scott?" He's nearly pleading now as they look on helplessly through the parking lot.

The three teens spread out, only a couple of feet separating them as they look for any clue that would tell them where Lydia went. Her car is still in the parking lot and Avery's stomach practically falls. She knew she should have trusted her instinct. She knew something was going to happen.

"Argh." Scott groans in pain, his hands flying up to cover his ear. "Ughh."

"Scott?" Stiles calls out to him, stepping closer when Scott falls to one knee- still holding his onto his ears. "What's happening?"

"I- I don't know." Avery mumbles as she rushes forward, grabbing Scott's wrists and pulling his hands away when he stops groaning. "Scott? What was that?"

"Lydia." He simply breathes. "Go. She's in trouble. Somewhere in the school."

Avery gasps, standing and immediately handing Stiles one of her daggers. "Run. Look in every classroom." He nods quickly while accepting the dagger, not needing to be told twice. Once she's sure that he's going on his way, she helps Scott up. "Where? I know you know which way to go." He nods, still grimacing and Avery is quick to follow after him.

They run along the outside of the school, Scott easily finding a door that's been left unlocked and hurrying inside. Avery is right on his heels though a second later, Scott seems to suddenly push himself faster and gains a few feet quite easily. Avery doesn't give up, not even when Scott turns down a hall and she loses sight of him. She runs for a few more seconds and when she doesn't hear the pounding of his feet down the hallway, she has to stop and listen in to see if she can find him by sound.

Sure enough, a ferocious growl echos down the corridor and she's off once more. She runs as fast as her feet can carry her and makes it to the room just in time to see Scott collide with a wall of stacked desks. He falls forward, landing on his stomach on the ground before coughing up a mouthful of blood and lies helplessly down in it.

Eyes wide, Avery steps through the door only to see her Dad with a knife protruding from the right side of his chest, Lydia tied down to a chair, and Ms. Blake standing at the front of the classroom glaring at her.

"Ms. Blake?" Avery breathes in shocked awe, her chest constricting tightly as she's faced with the teacher's betrayal.

"Avery?! Stay back!" John heavily pants when he sees his daughter in the room.

The female Stilinski almost has to do a double-take, her eyes and mind not believing that it's Ms. Blake who's been behind all this. Angry tears cloud her vision as she stands frozen in place but she does see as Ms. Blake's attention immediately zones in on the first door when she hears shoes squeak against the floor. With inhumane strength, Ms. Blake slides the wooden desk across the room with a flick of her wrist and lets it collide with the door- slamming it shut.

"Lydia?!" the voice shouts from the other side of the door as fists collide with it and Avery's mind registers that it's her brother. "Dad!" The pounding gets louder and now he's trying to push the door open.

Ms. Blake's attention zeroes in on John as he scrambles for his gun, picking it up and aiming it at the now advancing teacher. "There was a girl.. years ago. I found her in the woods." Ms. Blake's advance slows down though she narrows her eyes at him. "Her face and body were slashed apart. It was you, wasn't it?"

Avery's body has seems to have failed her. Her legs are not carrying her forward as her mind is screaming to get to her Dad before Ms. Blake does. To get to Lydia and make sure she's okay. And to help Scott up and make sure he's healing.

Instead, her feet are rooted to the ground.

"Maybe I should've started with Philosophers." Ms. Blake finally says when she doesn't deem Avery a threat. "With knowledge and strategy." She sneers and starts advancing but John lowers his gun so it's aimed at her leg- and shoots. Avery jumps at the noise, her hand slowly inching towards her back pocket where she still has one dagger hidden. As Ms. Blake's leg heals from the gunshot, she keeps on advancing. "Healers." She says, picking John up from his kneeling position and twisting the knife in his chest as she slams him against the wall. "Warriors."

Her Dad's scream finally snap her out of her shocked state, Avery gripping the dagger in hand before screaming out in anger and lunging at Ms. Blake.

Ms. Blake lets the knife go, holding John against the wall of desks as she easily reaches out and grips Avery's wrist that has the dagger as it's coming down to stab her. "Children." She chuckles darkly. "Always wanting to be the hero." Avery forms a fist with her free hand, pulling back and getting ready to swing but with a simple twist, Ms. Blake snaps Avery's wrist.

Avery screams out in pain as the dagger falls from her hand, tears immediately collecting in her eyes, and she can now hear Stiles screaming for her. He almost has the door pushed open for him to fit through but she knows he won't get there in time. "No. Stop it." John groans pathetically."

"It's cute, really it is." Ms. Blake coos. "And it's such a shame I already have my Warriors, Avery. You would've been an excellent candidate."

"Fuck. Off." Avery manages to spit through clenched teeth.

"Aw, now that's no way to speak to your teacher." Ms. Blake tuts at her. "Go sit in the corner." She snarls and when Avery looks up, she sees her teachers eyes glow an eerie white before feeling like she just got hit in the chest with a sledge hammer and gets sent flying backwards.

She hears her Dad shout as her back collides with a wall- the impact sending blinding pain throughout her entire body and she can't catch her breath. She hears Ms. Blake's voice again, talking about Guardians right before something clinks on the floor and then something about Virgins. The room gets quiet before an inhumane screech has her clenching her eyes shut in hopes of it stopping and the next thing she knows, a window is breaking just as Stiles finally pushes into the room.

"Dad?"

The room goes deathly quiet after that and when Avery doesn't hear her Dad's response, she chokes back a sob before the pain gets unbearable and everything goes black.


	15. Chapter 15

**The Overlooked**

Avery comes to when something flashes behind her closed eyelids and thunder rattles her once quiet mind. She suddenly realizes her head is pounding, her back and wrist are both sore, and there's a familiar coppery taste in her mouth. Lightning flashes yet again and Avery cringes at the brightness though her eyes are still closed. As she shifts in her seat, she realizes that she's in a moving vehicle and when she cracks open her eyes, she spots Stiles behind the wheel of his Jeep and Scott in the passenger seat in front of her as Stiles maneuvers his vehicle through the storm.

"Wha- what's going on?" She rasps.

The Jeep swerves as both Stiles and Scott turn in their seats to look at her, and Avery grimaces when her body hits the door.

"Sorry!" Stiles yelps as he quickly turns to keep his eyes on the road, glancing every few seconds over his shoulder. "It's good to see you join us in the realm of the living."

"Mhm." Avery hums as she sits up straighter, brushing her hair away from her eyes. "Where are we going?"

"To Derek's." Scott answers. "We need to warn him about Ms. Blake before she gets to him. You know, since they had their own thing going on."

Avery nods, breathing through the lingering pain in her body. "What the hell happened to me? I- I remember seeing Ms. Blake in the middle of everything going on in her classroom but I.. I don't-"

"You blacked out." Stiles mutters. "By the time I got into the room, Ms. Blake had taken Dad and I guess the pain became unbearable for you."

"S-she took Dad!" Avery's voice cracks as she yelps.

"Yeah but we're going to get him back." Stiles is quick to assure her. "We have to."

Stiles isn't paying attention since his eyes are on the road but Scott hears Avery's breath coming in short pants. As he turns in his seat, he finds Avery with her eyes clamped shut while trying to regain control of her breathing.

"Hey..  _hey_!" He calls out. "It's going to be fine. We will get him back, I promise, okay? But you need to calm down." He says softly and Stiles finally realizes that his sister is freaking out. "I'm going to do everything in my power to get your Dad back."

Tears leak out of Avery's shut eyes, the teen hanging onto Scott's words as she wills herself to calm down. She clutches at the seat belt that she finally realizes is strapping her to the seat before unlocking it and ripping it off. With the seat belt holding her down, it wasn't helping her with trying to calm herself.

"That's it." Scott sighs tiredly as he encourages her. "Breathe in and out slowly. It'll work with slowing your heart rate which is too high to be good at the moment."

Avery quickly nods, working on her breathing and sighs more-so to herself when she feels herself relaxing. She stretches out her arms after a moment, staring at her wrist and wondering about it's soreness. At her confused look, Scott fills her in. "Ms. Blake snapped your wrist when you attacked and then you got thrown into the wall. I'm not sure but I think you broke something when you collided with the wall. You were in so much pain." He tells her.

Avery frowns at that, bringing her wrist closer to eye level and rotating it once more. "But it's not broken." She mumbles. "I thought-"

"It  _was_  broken." Scott reiterates. "After you blacked out, we realized we needed to get you and Lydia-"

"Lydia?!" Avery suddenly cuts him off. "Where is she? Ms. Blake had her-"

"She's fine!" Stiles is quick to assure her. "Allison, her Dad, and Isaac stayed back with her- and by the way- you're going to need to contact that werewolf of yours." He sheepishly tells her. "He freaked when he saw Scott carrying you out from the school before the police could get there."

"Yeah. Okay." She sighs and pats down her pockets for her phone. When she finds it, she makes quick work of unlocking it and writing a quick message to Isaac;  _'I'm okay. I'm awake though I'm not sure what happened. Stiles and Scott are still filling me in, I think.'_ She gently places her phone down next to her, going through her pockets in search of a hair-tie to keep her hair from getting in the way. When she finds one, she quickly ties her hair back in a messy ponytail, slightly grimacing at the soreness of her body. "So, again, why isn't anything broken if you said it was?"

"Well, Isaac wasn't the only one who freaked." Scott picked up his explanation. "Stiles and I didn't know what to do, and we almost let Allison and Isaac keep you to wait for an ambulance but then Stiles remembered that you had magical healing vampire blood in your room. We whisked you away, shoved some down your throat, and picked up some toys for you because I'm pretty sure you want to be there when we tell Derek about his girlfriend."

"You're damn right I do." She mumbles when the lit up screen of her phone catches her attention. When Scott and Stiles don't say anything else, she opens the text to find Isaac's reply;  _'What happened? Scott and Stiles didn't tell us much and Lydia seems out of it. She keeps mumbling about Ms. Blake.'_

Sighing, Avery tells him everything that she can remember. Isaac was quite shocked to find out that their teacher had been behind everything and livid when Avery told him of Ms. Blake breaking her wrist and possibly more when she got tossed into the wall. She was quick to assure him that she's all healed up now and that she, Stiles, and Scott are on the way to Derek's to tell him everything. Isaac tells her to keep safe and Avery tells him to keep an eye on the girls; that she'd text him when they needed him.

By the time they pull up to Derek's loft, Stiles and Scott are scrambling out of the jeep- both boys heading for the back where Stiles stows everything. Avery scrambles out too, going the fastest she can when she realizes that the lightning is flashing more frequently but the thunder isn't as loud. The wind is blowing rather harshly and it's starting to drizzle.

"Here." Scott says when Stiles slams the back of his jeep shut. "I figured you'd want these." He smirks as Avery gratefully takes her bow and quiver of silver-tipped arrows. "If Ms. Blake shows her face, you can get her back. Just don't kill her."

"I make no promises." Avery grunts as she drapes the quiver across her back. "Once we get the information we need, that bitch is dead."

Scott looks like he wants to persuade her to take a different route but Stiles beats him to the punch. "Sounds good to me. Now come on, we have an alpha to fill in."

Scott snaps his mouth shut, knowing full well he won't win this argument when the twins are going to be up against him. They quickly make their way inside, the three teens taking the rustic looking elevator up to the top, and racing towards Derek's place. Before Scott can slide open the door, Avery quickly notches an arrow- pointing it downward as they cautiously step inside.

"Derek?" Scott calls out. "We need to talk."

Derek appears through the gaping hole in the brick wall. When he takes in their appearance and lets their emotions roll over him, his brows crease in confusion. "Why does Avery seem like she's about to murder someone?"

"It's Ms. Blake." Scott blurts. "It's been her all along!" Avery holds her bow still, eyes darting all over the place and staying alert in case their teacher was hidden in the shadows.

Derek's eyes widen just a bit, the alpha stepping further towards them. "What do you mean  _it's been her-_ "

"The Darach." Stiles cuts him off. "Ms. Blake is the Darach and she just kidnapped our Dad."

"What are you-"

"She threw me across the room just by connecting her palm to my chest." Scott admits. "She broke Avery's wrist with a simple squeeze-"

"-and she sent me flying across the room with her white glowing eyes." Avery spits, her eyes ablaze. "The bitch is dead after we find out where she's keeping my Dad."

Derek lets their words sink in, his attention having been on the sound of their heart beats. Scott was a bit frantic- he wanting Derek to believe him while Stiles was all over the place. He could tell the pale teen was barely holding together if the tears gathering in his eyes were anything to go by. Ever since he's known the hyperactive teen, he'd never seen such emotion from him. But Avery- Avery was what made him believe. Her heart beat had been eerily calm as she spoke and not once did it jump even in her apparent numb rage.

They were telling the truth.

Before he can tell them to give him more information, his attention and Scott's both snap towards the door. "Hide." Derek quickly tells them. "I can hear someone approaching." Avery frowns, prepping her bow and arrow once more but Derek stops her. "No. Not yet, Avery. I want to see what she has to say for herself. I  _need_ to hear her out first." He says and when Avery locks gazes with him, she can see the emotion in his eyes and the way he shuts part of himself down, and reluctantly nods her consent.

"Fine. But afterward, I'm killing her."

"Fair enough." He concedes and then the three teens scramble to hide in the next room.

Before Avery hides around the corner, she sees the alpha exhale rather harshly- running his hand down the length of his face as if prepping himself for what's about to come. The loft door slides open and Scott pulls Avery out of sight before she can be seen.

"Derek?" Ms. Blake calls out, her voice grating on Avery's nerves and it takes every fiber of her being to not march out there and shoot arrow after arrow into the teacher. "Derek, where are you?" Her voice is frantic and scared as her heels click against the loft floor in search of the Hale alpha.

"Right here." He answers her.

"Oh, thank god." Ms. Blake sighs in relief, walking up to him and wrapping him up in a hug. "Something happened.. at the recital.. at the school. Okay, I need to tell you before you hear it- before you hear any of it from  _them_."

The words spilling from her mouth has Avery clenching her jaw in anger and clenching her bow tightly in her hand. "From who?" Derek wonders.

"Scott." She immediately blurts. "Stiles.. Avery. They're going to tell you things. Things you can't believe- you have to trust me, okay? You trust  _me_." And yeah, Avery is definitely going to kill her when she has the chance.

"What is it?" Derek asks calmly.

"You promise you'll listen to me?"

"Promise."

The duo lapse into a moment of silence, the thunder and lightning causing Avery to blink and remember that there was a storm going on. When the silence continues, she takes a quick peak around the wall and catches Derek and Ms. Blake kissing. For a split second, her mind whispers  _traitor_ but then she sees Ms. Blake tense and start to pull away.

"They're already here, aren't they?"

Derek's gaze jumps from Ms. Blake to over her shoulder and locking with Avery. The female Stilinski smugly smirks as she notches an arrow, holding it steady as she walks out with Stiles and Scott flanking her- pointing the arrow at a seemingly shocked and scared teacher. With Ms. Blake giving Derek her back, the three teens are the only ones who witness her gaze narrowing harshly directly at Avery before schooling her features back into that of a helpless victim.

Ms. Blake looks back and forth between Derek and the advancing group. "So they told you it was me? That I'm the one taking people?"

"We told him you were the one  _killing_  people." Scott grounds out, holding back his anger.

"Oh, that's right." She nervously chuckles. "Committing human sacrifices. What.. cutting their throats?" She says disbelievingly. "Yeah, I- I probably do it on my lunch hour that way I can get back to teaching high school English the rest of the day. That makes perfect sense."

Avery grits her teeth together, pulling the string back a little further to show the teacher they weren't messing around. "Where's our Dad?" Stiles sadly asks, tears running down his face.

"How should I know?" Ms. Blake answers before turning back to Derek. "Derek, tell me you don't believe this?"

Derek blankly watches the false emotions flash across Ms. Blake's face before he blinks and locks gazes with Stiles. "Do you know what happened to Stiles' father?" He asks instead of answering her.

"No." She shakes her head in denial.

Avery's fingers twitch as she thinks twice about letting her arrow fly. "Ask her why she almost killed Lydia."

"Lydia Martin?" Ms. Blake scoffs. "I don't know anything about that."

"Then what do you know?" Derek says and Avery can see the Hale alpha getting angrier as the seconds tick by.

"I know that these  _kids-_ for whatever misguided reason- are filling your head with an absurd story." She tries pleading with him before turning back to face Stiles, Avery, and Scott. "And one they can't prove, by the way."

Avery grins sardonically at that. "Let me nail you with an arrow so we can see your nifty little healing powers you displayed after my Dad shot you."

Ms. Blake quickly sneers at her before Scott speaks up next. "What if we can prove it?" He says before giving a look at Avery, a look that clearly says to  _back down_ before pulling out a small jar with white powder from behind his back.

"What is that?" Ms. Blake gulps and Avery knows that whatever Scott has, it has the teacher suddenly scared.

"My boss told me it's a poison  _and_  a cure." Scott says, stepping forward as he unscrews the lid of the jar. "Which means you can use it and it can be used against you."

"Mistletoe?" She sneers, taking a step back as Scott suddenly flings his hand out.

White powder circles around a now flailing Ms. Blake but it's when some of the powder clears and she screeches that has everyone gulping and taking a step back as they witness this woman's true nature. Her appearance is that of a bald and slashed apart face with missing lips- and it's this face that Lydia had told Avery about in confidence one night. The face Lydia saw during the explosion at the Motel but had been too terrified to speak to anyone about. As she flails some more, trying to get the powder away from her, the face of Jennifer Blake as they've come to know her is back in place.

Jennifer pants heavily when the mistletoe powder clears up- groaning and sighing harshly while Derek is looking at her in shock and then anger. Ms. Blake quiets down before trying to make a run for it and Avery nearly lets her arrow fly but Derek is there and gripping Jennifer by the throat. "Derek! Wait.. wait!" She pleads when Derek flicks his free hand out to the side- his claws making their appearance. "You need me!" She tells him.

"What are you?" He practically growls, his hand tightening it's hold on her throat.

"The only person who can save your sister." She gasps out. "Call Peter. Call him!"

Derek tightens his grip just little more, enough to make Ms. Blake flinch as he reaches into his pocket with his free hand- fishing out his phone. He takes his eyes off of Jennifer for a moment as he goes through his contact's list- finding Peter's name and calling him.

Putting the phone on speaker for the humans in the room, his gaze is back on Jennifer's face as she struggles to breathe. "How is she?" He immediately asks when Peter answers.

" _It's not good. She's in and out of consciousness. She's vomiting up black blood along with one other alarming substance."_

"Mistletoe." Scott breaths to which Derek repeats so Peter can hear.

" _How did you know that?"_

Derek doesn't answer and ends the call with his Uncle as he puts his phone away- glaring at Jennifer. He squeezes her throat, enough so that there's a small snap and she's groans out in pain- gasping for breath.

"Derek?  _Derek!_ " Scott raises his voice. "What are you doing?!"

"Her life.. it's in my hands." Jennifer gasps out, using the one excuse that she knows is certain so he doesn't kill her. Instead, it only pisses him off more and he raises his arm that's gripping her throat so her feet aren't touching the ground.

As Ms. Blake continues to struggle, Avery watches on in glee as the traitorous teacher struggles for breath. "Stop, Derek, stop!" Stiles suddenly pleads.

"Stilinski, you'll never find him." Jennifer then directs her words to Stiles, using the teen's love of his Father against him.

Avery snaps out of her moment of clouded judgment, the fact that it's  _her_  Dad too that's missing, before she blows out an aggravated sigh and lowers her bow. "Derek." She calls out, willing the alpha to stop. Derek holds his grip on her, glaring daggers at the woman who not only betrayed everyone but him as well. "Derek!" She yells louder, gaining his attention when he suddenly drops the teacher in a heap on the ground.

Ms. Blake chuckles, pressing her palms flat on the floor as she tilts her head up at Derek. "That's right. You need me." Her head then snaps toward the three teens. "All of you."

Gone is the helpless victim charade Ms. Blake was trying to pull off and in it's place is her true personality. The one of the conniving and manipulative bitch also known as the Darach with her sadistic smirk.

Jennifer smugly grins at them all- Derek and Scott gritting their teeth in anger at the fact that she's right while Stiles watches on helplessly. Before anyone can figure out what to do next, Avery releases her arrow and watches on numbly as it pierces through one of Ms. Blake's wrists.

The teacher hisses in pain, sneering and glaring at Avery. "Ouch." She grits out.

"What the fu-" Stiles nearly yelps as he then watches Ms. Blake easily rip out the arrow, the wound healing right before their eyes.

"That's for snapping my wrist earlier."

"A wrist that seems perfectly fine to me." Jennifer grins sardonically. "Tell me, Ms. Stilinski, what  _are_ you? You don't give off the aura of a supernatural being."

"Because I'm a human with excellent friends, you asshat." Avery says as she notches another arrow. "Now get your ass off the floor and start walking. You have a Hale to heal and a Father to return."

Ms. Blake grins at Avery mouthing off, standing up on her own two feet when Derek grips her upper bicep and starts marching her out of his loft. Avery follows behind them, an arrow notched and pointed at Ms. Blake's back as Scott and Stiles trail behind her. They all take the rickety elevator back down to ground level where Derek marches Jennifer through the rain and towards his vehicle.

Avery goes to follow but Stiles' hand coming down on her shoulder makes her hesitate. "Where you going? My jeep's this way."

"Yeah, well, I'm not letting her out of my eyesight." She tells him. "Scott can go with you and I'll be with Derek in case she tries to persuade him."

Stiles opens his mouth to argue but Scott's arm passing by his face cuts him off. "Here. You're going to need this then. I doubt you can shoot an arrow inside Derek's car."

Avery grins at him when she sees that he has her dagger. The dagger she dropped back in the classroom when Ms. Blake broke her wrist. "Thanks, Scooby."

"Just be safe, Scrappy."

Stiles rolls his eyes at their nicknames, biting his tongue and letting his sister go without another word. As soon as Derek situates himself in the driver's seat, Avery runs and climbs into the back seat behind him. When Jennifer makes eye contact with her, she rolls her eyes which only causes Avery to snicker.

"You didn't think you'd get off that easy, did you?"

Derek huffs when Jennifer goes back to staring out the windshield, Avery setting her bow down on the seat next to her while twirling the dagger in hand. The first half of the car ride is mostly silent- the only sound coming from the engine of the car as Derek presses down on the gas pedal. The rain is coming down in sheets as it pounds against the windshield and now it seems as if the lightning and thunder has disappeared.

"You should know I'm not doing this because I have to." Jennifer suddenly says. "I want to. I could still run and you wouldn't have an easy time stopping me." Avery rolls her eyes at the confession, twirling the dagger in her hand as she looks out her window. "But I don't want your sister to die. I'm only doing what I had to do."

"Shutup." Derek deadpans.

But Jennifer just keeps on going. "You need to hear the whole story, Derek. You need to know just how connected we really are."

"Stop. Talking." Derek says which causes Avery to snort in amusement.

Avery's snort then catches Jennifer's attention and when Avery catches her staring, all amusement drains from her face as she fixes her teacher with her best  _fuck off_ glare. With a roll of her eyes, Jennifer turns back to face forward- keeping her mouth shut.

Before Avery can go back to twirling the dagger, her phone vibrates in her pocket. Quickly taking it out, she realizes it's from Scott.

_'Stiles doesn't feel right about this. He says it feels like all this- Derek finding out- was part of her plan. Keep a close eye on her.'_

Avery quickly sends back an affirmative before pocketing her phone and gripping her dagger tight. She sets her gaze on Ms. Blake's form and doesn't take her eyes off of her the rest of the ride to the hospital.

When they finally screech to a stop in front of the hospital, the rain is coming down even harder than before along with the lightning. Derek quickly gets out with Ms. Blake automatically following suit. Everyone scrambles to get out of the rain but Avery still ends up getting soaked because she has to pull out her bow and sling it across her back while also hiding her dagger from view in her back pocket. Given the emptiness of the parking lot, Avery feels confident enough that no-one is going to be paying her any attention with the storm going on.

"What's that?" She hears Scott say over the storm.

Turning to look back, she sees Stiles gripping a wooden bat. "What? You got claws, Avery has a bow, and I got a bat." He shrugs.

The female Stilinski grins as she turns back around, jogging to keep up behind Derek who was gripping Ms. Blake's arm rather harshly as he leads them through the halls. As expected, the remaining Doctors and Nurses are scrambling about with the remaining patients- trying to get together documents and medicines that they don't even see Derek pulling Jennifer along with him or Avery's bow and arrows slung across her back or even that fact that Stiles is wielding a bat.

"Scott!" Someone hollers, stalling the group and when they turn around, they find it's Ms. MsCall. "Scott, what are you doing here? The hospital's evacuating."

"We're here for Cora." He tells her.

"All of you?!" She replies, her eyes traveling over Derek and Jennifer before narrowing suspiciously at Stiles and Avery. "Why does Stiles have my bat? And is Avery planning on doing archery sometime soon?"

"Mom, just trust me on this." Scott says, focusing her attention back on him. "You need to get out of here." Her face seems to fall as she looks over the group one more time and takes in the seriousness of the situation. "Right now."

Reluctantly, Ms. McCall nods. "The building is supposed to be cleared in thirty minutes." She hurriedly tells him. We've got two ambulances that are coming back- one's ten minutes out, the other twenty. Cora needs to be on one of those. They'll be picking up in the basement garage."

"Got it." Scott murmurs as he catalogs the information in his mind, walking back slowly before the entire group takes off towards the elevators as fast as they can without drawing unwanted attention.

When Derek presses the button and they wait for the elevator, Avery slinks to the back of the group. When the doors slide open- Scott and Stiles stand in the back corners, Derek pulls Jennifer in with him as they stand in the middle, and Avery steps to stand in front of all of them as the doors slide closed. Derek reaches over, pressing the number for the floor that Cora is on before setting his gaze on the numbers at top.

Ms. Blake rolls her eyes as she glances down at his hand on her upper arm. "You don't have to keep me on a leash, Derek. I'm going to help."

Avery watches her closely, using the reflective doors to keep an eye the teacher behind her. She sees when Ms. Blake suddenly looks over her left shoulder only to find Scott glaring at her. Ms. Blake slowly turns back around, only to furrow her brows in confusion before looking over her right shoulder where Stiles is glaring at her too- the bat gripped tightly in his hands.

Ms. Blake looks forward with a roll of her eyes, an expression on her face that clearly says  _oh, please_ but when she looks directly at the door's reflective surface- she catches Avery glaring at her through the reflection.

Ms. Blake scoffs with another roll of her eyes and Avery has to clench her fists to keep from striking out. "Roll your eyes all you want, Jennifer, but believe me-" She says suddenly, her anger finally reaching it's breaking point and gaining everyone's attention in the elevator. "-if you do not return my Dad and heal Cora, I will have you hunted down to the ends of the Earth." Jennifer starts to grin only to have Avery harden her features further in order to show Ms. Blake that she isn't messing around. "Remember those friends of mine I mentioned earlier? All it will take is one call and you're done for. My friends will make your so-called powers look like poorly imitated magic tricks and when they find you, they will torture you. They'll torture you until they break you- mind, body, and soul- and then, they'll torture you some more before carving out your heart and serving it to me on a silver platter."

By the end of her warning, Jennifer actually looks visibly shaken at the lethal tone Avery's voice had took on. Scott and Derek look a bit wide-eyed at the threat Avery just issued, and Stiles looks just a tad proud. As the elevator dings and the doors slide open, Avery steps to the side to let Derek and Jennifer walk out first. Stiles and Scott flank her- both boys holding their fists out for her to bump with her own.

"That was awesome." Stiles murmurs, bumping fists with his sister.

Avery finally allows herself to grin, bumping fists with her brother and then Scott before finally hurrying up to catch up with Derek as the lights in the building flicker.

Derek finally comes to a stop outside of a room- an empty room that has a puddle of black liquid with black droplets leading out of the room. Everyone is puzzled as to where it could be that Cora has gotten off to.

"Derek." Scott suddenly says, gaining the alphas attention and nodding towards the droplets on the ground.

All their gazes follow the trail to where they led up to a set of brown doors. There's a commotion on the other side- grunting and groaning- and Avery slowly starts to pull her bow from her back.

The doors burst open, Peter sliding out on his pack as he groans. "We had a problem." He says up at them before lifting his head and looking towards the open doors. "Big problem."

Had this been any other day with any other problem, Avery would have laughed. But the powerful roar sounding next has Avery and everyone else looking up, and into the room Peter slid from only to find one very large alpha setting his sights on them. He's larger than a normal alpha werewolf and with the scar running from the middle of it's forehead to the middle of it's chest- Avery realizes it's the alpha that Aiden and Ethan morph into.

Derek, Jennifer, Avery, Scott, and Stiles each take a step back- Stiles gripping his bat just a little bit harder and without taking her eyes off of the alpha, Avery slips an arrow from the quiver on her back and easily notches it. Out of her peripheral vision, she sees Derek's features morph into his wolf.

Derek growls and the twins answer back with an even louder growl. At the same time, the twins and Derek take off at a sprint towards each other- each of them gaining momentum before Derek tries to tackle them.

Aiden and Ethan easily gain control of the fight and as Avery tries to find an available opening to launch an arrow, she hears Scott growling before he too joins in on the fight. Scott runs, leaps up on the wall before using that momentum to toss himself at the twins who easily dodge Scott's claws as he comes down.

"Cora." Avery hears her brother breathe. As her gaze snaps over to him, she follows his gaze down the hall and behind the fight where Cora is laying helplessly on the ground. "Help me." He says as he leans down toward Peter. "Cover us." He then throws over his shoulder at Avery.

Avery quickly nods, watching as Peter and Stiles run behind the alpha morphed twins as they pin Scott by his throat up against the wall. With Scott struggling to breathe, Avery forgets about Jennifer momentarily as she shuffles forward with her arrow directed at Aiden and Ethan.

"Ethan.. Aiden, stop!" Scott manages to tell them. "You don't know what you're doing."

Avery closes her eyes briefly- after watching Stiles and Peter successfully make it to Cora and pick her up- mentally apologizing to Ethan for what she's about to do.

" _All we want is her!_ "

Avery lets the arrow fly, quickly reaching back for another one as the twins roar out in agony. She sees as they angrily rip the arrow out from their forearm after dropping Scott to the ground before locking gazes with her. As they drop the arrow at their feet, she pulls the string back after notching another arrow, ready to let it fly when the twins' eyes lock on something over her shoulder. The twins roar yet again, running towards her but doubt starts to creep in before she can release her arrow. Instead, she lunges to the side as the morphed alpha nears. When her back hits the wall, she looks at what was behind her that pissed off the twins only see catch a glimpse of Jennifer in the elevator before the doors closed- taking Jennifer to a destination of her own.

_Fuck!_

With the twins momentarily distracted, she turns back to Scott and Derek who are motioning for her to join them. She runs as fast as she can to them- slowing down to pick up the arrow she had nailed Aiden and Ethan with- and while slipping it back into the quiver, she follows the two werewolves as they catch up with Peter, Stiles, and Cora.

Peter has Cora draped over his shoulder as they rush into a room. "Don't stop. Don't stop!" Derek yells only to realize that Stiles has- in fact- stopped to stare at the bat in his hands, looking back to the door before stepping off to the side where anyone coming in won't see him. Peter has already rushed out the second set of doors- Scott, Derek, and Avery stopping to look back. "Stiles!"

The morphed twins stroll in growling and Avery quickly notches an arrow in case they advance. She sees Stiles raise the bat above his head behind the twins' back, swinging as hard as he can at the back of their head only to have to bat splinter to pieces upon contact.

Aiden/Ethan growls at him- Avery itching to release the arrow but they easily let Stiles get away. That right there is enough for her to realize that they really don't want to hurt anyone else. They're just after Ms. Blake.

The twins then set their eyes on Scott and Derek after Stiles runs behind them with Avery, the twins growling as if daring one of them to make a move. For a moment, Avery thinks it's just going to be a stare down but then she sees Scott looking up and down before he steps on Derek's conjoined hands- the Hale alpha giving the beta a boost- and launches him up toward the ceiling. Scott claws the end of the rectangular light fixture, letting it swing down and crash into Aiden and Ethan. The lights then flicker as Stiles, Avery, Derek, and Scott book it out of the room.

As Derek and Scott take the lead- using Peter's scent to trail him- the lights completely go out. The group pauses as one and Avery feels her phone vibrating in her back pocket but just as she pulls it out, the generators kick on and they're suddenly running again.

When they finally make it the room, Cora is laid out on a stretcher with Peter checking over her and Derek is shutting the doors and making sure no-one is behind them.

"Where's the big guy?"

"Close." Derek answers his Uncle.

"What about Ms. Blake?" Avery avoids her brother's gaze- putting the arrow back in it's quiver in favor of checking her phone. Derek doesn't even acknowledge the question but when Stiles finally looks to Scott- he shakes his head. "What do you mean- what does that mean? Like.. she's gone? Scott, are you kidding me?!"

"Quiet!" Derek whisper shouts at him.

"Me be quiet? Me?!" Stiles suddenly steps up to Derek. "Huh? You telling me what do now when your psychotic mass murdering girlfriend- the second one you've dated, by the way- has got my Dad somewhere tied up waiting to be ritually sacrificed?!" Derek lets the teen vent, clenching his jaw in anger but not lashing out. He has every right to be upset but mentioning that Derek dated two psychos was a bit of a low-blow.

"Stiles, they're still out there!" Scott finally moves to intervene muttering lowly as to not attract the alphas. Avery moves in as well and grabs her brother by the sleeve to pull him back away from an already fuming Derek.

"A-and they want her, right?" Stiles replies back. "Which means now we don't have her either so my Dad and Cora are both dead."

"Not yet." Scott tells him before moving back to where Cora is laid out- his attention on Peter. "Is she really dying?"

"She's definitely not getting any better."

"There has to be something we can do." Avery voices, the teen wracking her mind for an idea. "We need to help her."

The doors suddenly swing open- everyone's attention zeroing in on the intruder- only to see Ms. Blake standing there. "You can't. Only I can. I can save her  _and_ I can tell you where Sheriff Stilinski is." Everyone watches the so-called teacher, Avery slowly putting her phone away thinking about notching an arrow or going for her dagger. "There is a pack of alphas in this hospital who want me dead so I'll help you but only when I'm out of here and safe." Avery's lips twist into a sneer- Jennifer's words not sitting right with her. "Only then."

Before anyone can say anything, Derek suddenly throws back a small table with medical instruments on it and lunging for Jennifer. "Wait!" Scott stops him.

Derek points at her angrily. "She was trying to get out."

"I was trying to keep from getting killed. You can't blame me for that."

"If you wanna show you're one of the good guys," Stiles says, stepping forward now. "-heal her." He points to Cora.

"Not 'til I'm safe." Jennifer immediately shuts him down.

"I'd like to volunteer a different method of persuasion." Peter dead-pans. "Let's torture her."

"Works for me." Derek mutters as he tries to get out of Scott's hold.

"You've got a third vote from me." Avery smirks as she pulls out her dagger, twirling it before gripping it with her gaze set on Ms. Blake.

As Avery, Derek, and Peter have a stare down with Jennifer- the P.A system comes to life. " _Um, c-can I have your attention?_ " Scott freezes from nudging Derek back, his head snapping up towards the speaker. Stiles softly curses and the blood in Avery's veins turn cold. It's Ms. McCall. " _Mr. Deucalion- ex- excuse me, just Deucalion- requests you bring the woman calling herself Jennifer Blake to the E.R reception._ " All eyes snap towards Jennifer- the female in question gulping in fear before rolling her eyes. " _Do this and everyone else can leave. You have ten minutes._ " It sounds like Ms. McCall is about to say more but the system suddenly cuts off.

All eyes turn to Scott who looks pained and worried, and who's staring directly at Jennifer. "He's not going to hurt her." She shakes her head in denial.

"Shutup!" Derek snaps at her.

"He won't!" She says louder, almost angry. "Scott, you know why. Tell them it's true."

Avery's heart beat starts to quicken, Ms. Blake's words ringing in her ears as she realizes what she's talking about. Derek and Peter quickly glance at her before all eyes turn to Scott. "What does she mean?" Derek finally asks.

Scott doesn't want to answer so Jennifer does so for him. "You're not the only one Deucalion wants in his pack." Derek glances back down at Scott- the beta pup looking defeated. "Deucalion just doesn't want an alpha pack- he wants perfection. That means adding the rarest of alphas to his ranks."

The room goes silent for a moment, Derek staring down Scott as Peter suddenly mumbles, "A true alpha."

Avery hears, sucking in a breath quickly at his correct guess and when Stiles looks at her, she nods her head confirming that Peter is correct. "What's that?" Stiles asks.

"The kind that doesn't have to steal his power from another." Peter answers while looking at Derek before turning to look at Scott. "One that can rise by the force of his own will. Our little Scott."

There's a whole bunch of tense looks between Derek, Peter, and Scott but Scott finally settles his attention on Peter. "It doesn't matter. We still need to get her out of here." He then turns his gaze on Jennifer.

"Scott, your mom!" Stiles steps forward.

"My mom said there's one more ambulance coming in twenty minutes and I don't think we've been here that long. So if we can get down to the garage, get to the last ambulance, we can get out of here."

Peter sighs. "The twins aren't going to let us just walk out."

"I'll distract them."

"You mean fight them." Derek says.

"Whatever I have to do."

"I'll help." Avery steps up, siding with Scott.

"Wait, what?!" Stiles yelps. "No. No! You're not going to take on a set of alphas who are conjoined like the freaks they are."

"I have to." Avery turns to her brother, talking in a soothing voice. "Whether we like or not, we need to get that-" She points an accusing finger at Jennifer. "-traitorous bitch to safety. As well as Cora. We need to get Dad back, Stiles, and since I can handle a bow pretty damn well- I need to be out in the field kicking some ass."

"I'll help them." Derek quickly says, cutting off Stiles' impending argument.

"Um, sorry but I'm not going anywhere without you, Derek." Ms. Blake butts in.

"Oh, jump off his dick already." Avery groans to which Peter chuckles happily.

"I'll do it." Every head whirls towards Peter who volunteered to help. "But I prefer to be out there with an advantage."

"Advantage? Like what, you mean like a weapon?" Stiles asks since he knows he's going to get nowhere with his twin.

"Something better than a baseball bat." Peter quips.

There's a moments hesitation before Scott, Stiles, and Avery look around- the three teens lunging for the nearest set of drawers and cabinets that are full of a variety of hospital drugs in order to find something to use against the twins to weaken them. Derek and Peter immediately join in on the search while Ms. Blake stands uselessly by the doors.

"Hey, wait!" Stiles suddenly calls out and when everyone looks at him, he's holding up the paddles to a defibrillator. "What about these?"

"Do you know how to use those?" Derek asks him.

"Well, no."

"Then put them down."

Stiles does as he's told with a nod before continuing on with his search and Avery bites back a grin. She's standing next to Scott, looking through a red metal cabinet that has a bunch of drawers but all she's come across so far is gauze and tape.

"Epinephrine?" Scott suddenly calls out. Avery looks up at him to see him holding the largest needle and syringe she's ever seen.

"That's only going to make them stronger." Derek shakes his head.

Avery is ready to continue her search but from the corner of her eye, she sees Peter freeze mid-thought. "How strong?"

Peter's gaze is set on the syringe full of clear liquid as Avery and Scott's gaze dart back and forth between the syringe and Peter. They suddenly realize what he's hinting at and both teens scurry forward. "Where do you want it?" Scott asks as he gets the remaining air bubble out.

Peter rolls his eyes at Scott's thoughtfulness as to where he wants the needle stuck so Avery quickly takes charge. "Of for fucks sake, Scott." She says as she drops her bow, ripping the syringe from his hand. "He's a werewolf, there's no need to be gentle."

All of them cringe at the force of which Avery uses to slam the needle into Peter's chest and presses down on the plunger. Peter groans at the sensation, the epinephrine also known as adrenaline, immediately kicks in.

"Okay, when you hear the roar of the fight and I give the signal, duck out behind me." Avery tells Stiles and Derek. "Peter and Scott can do the fighting and I'll be there to cover you in case they spot you."

No-one argues with her, instead they're all kind of watching Peter as he zombie walks out of the room. Avery snorts a quick laugh, picking up her bow and notching an arrow as Scott follows Peter with his own claws extended and a mouth full of fangs. Avery goes to follow but Stiles reaches forward and latches on to her wrist.

With a pained expression, he tells her, "Be careful out there."

"I always am, bro." She tells him with a grin before leaving the room and setting up like a professional with her arrow pointed straight ahead.

"Alright, boys, lets rumble." Peter pants. Aiden and Ethan answer back with two ferocious growls and Peter answers back fiercely with one of his own.

Peter runs straight ahead and easily gets knocked into the wall by the once again joined alphas, and Scott is ducking their claws. Both Peter and Scott then grab the alphas by their waist, holding them in place and when Avery gives the nod of her head, Stiles and Jennifer scramble out of the room with Cora being thrown over Derek's shoulders.

As soon as they're out of sight, Avery finds an opening and lets her arrow fly- piercing the twins in the leg. They roar out- momentarily distracted enough for Peter and Scott to jump on their back. Avery runs forward, dodging the flailing arms and legs as the twins try to dislodge the two betas from their form, and gets to the other side of the hallway with ease. Scott and Peter go flying into the wall, Scott hitting a moving cart rather harshly as Avery notches another arrow.

Aiden and Ethan angrily rip out the arrow from their leg, and throw it to the side before they shove an advancing Scott into the wall. He quickly gets up, catching Avery's gaze and run towards her when the twins throw Peter into the cart that Scott had hit earlier. As the twins turn towards the room Jennifer had just been in, Peter quickly gets up and books it towards Scott and Avery as they run down the next hall. Behind them, they hear the twins roar and they know that they're pissed because Jennifer slipped away once again.

They're running as fast as they can, Peter and Scott stumbling a step behind as Avery zig zags them through hallways that she's never even been down before. It's when they're in the third hallway that the generators completely go out- the main building's power flicking on and off with the storm. Majority of the light that Avery is using to guide her is coming from the outside lightning.

They start running again, turning down the next available empty hall when Peter collapses to the ground against the wall. "That shot didn't last very long."

"For Christ's sake, Peter, get up!" Avery pants just when Scott suddenly kneels down, picking up the older beta's arm and draping it around his neck to help him up.

Scott takes the lead this time since his eyes are better adjusted for the dark and Avery follows while also keeping watch over her shoulder in case she needs to quickly let an arrow fly. A door is suddenly kicked open and when Avery turns back around, she sees that it was Scott who kicked open the door while shoving Peter inside. Avery quickly rushes in and Scott shuts the door behind them, locks it, and keeps watch through the small window.

"Those twins are  _really_  starting to piss me off." Peter groans as he catches his breath.

"How the hell are we supposed to get passed them?" Scott mutters, a trail of blood marring his forehead.

"Personally, I think if we keep letting them beat the living crap out of us, they'll tire and give up." Peter says while Avery just rolls her eyes but Peter sees it. "You know, Avery, we wouldn't have to be putting up with this if you had just called in your friends." Avery's eyes snap to his, narrowing in slight anger since she knows which friends he's referring to. "You talked about your vampire and hybrid friends as if they were the strongest beings around. Why didn't you call them in when you had the chance?"

"Because honestly," Avery slips her bow across her back so that she's able to cross her arms over her chest and fix Peter with her best bitch face. "-Elijah deals with strictly vampire politics. If I had called Nik in, he would have slaughtered everyone." She grits out, suddenly angry at Peter for bringing them up.

"Exactly my point." Peter drawls. "He could have taken care of the alphas for us and we wouldn't have this Darach problem as well."

Scott suddenly looks at Avery- wondering the same thing. If Nik was so powerful, why hadn't Avery called him in to help them? When Avery catches Scott staring at her, she shakes her head. "You don't get it. Nik would have killed  _everyone._ Everyone includes those who I've befriended."

Peter's expression closes off after that with a huff and she can practically see the hope draining from Scott's face. "Why us too?"

"Because," Avery sighs as she moves around the room. "-when I moved here, this was supposed to be my fresh start with my real family. Nik was way excited for me to finally have the normal life away from New Orleans and if he found out just how many supernatural beings are actually in my life again, he'll get pissed and eliminate everyone to guarantee the normal human life."

Peter and Scott drop the topic after that but when Scott averts his gaze, Avery sees that something has caught his attention. Peter sees Scott staring intensely at something and when he turns to Avery, she's staring at the same thing with her lips pursed in contemplation. When he finally looks to see what they're both staring at, he sees it's a laundry chute.

"Seriously?" Peter groans when he sees it.

"Yep." Scott and Avery say in union. "But I'm not dropping first." Avery quickly tells them. "If there's no basket at the end of that chute, you two have healing abilities. I don't."

Scott nods along, agreeing with her while Peter rolls his eyes. Avery quickly runs up to the chute, opening it up and gesturing for one of the wolves to climb in. When Scott hesitates, Peter steps up and climbs in- letting himself drop out of sight. When there's no painful thump, Avery gestures for Scott to go. Scott doesn't argue and quickly climbs in, letting himself drop out of view as well. This time, there is a painful groan and Avery can't help but laugh despite the situation. Without wasting another second, Avery takes off her bow to hold in her hand before climbing in and letting herself drop.

Miraculously, she lands between the two wolves though she feels Peter shove her from behind and ends up hitting Scott in the face with her free hand. "You two couldn't have waited, like, ten seconds?"

Avery snorts in amusement, making sure her bow isn't broken before scrambling to climb out of the basket of sheets they landed in. Peter is still groaning, stretching his arm back when Avery hears something pop followed by the loud vibration of Scott's phone.

Simultaneously, Peter and Avery look to Scott who's staring down in worry at his phone. "They didn't get out, did they?" Peter says with confidence that shows he's correct before jumping out of the basket- Scott following suit.

"It was Derek." Scott mutters when he sees Avery staring at him, biting her lip in worry. "The ambulance was in the basement but Kali killed the driver and has the keys."

"Okay, and.."

"Stiles is in the back of the ambulance with Cora and Kali chased Derek and Jennifer into the elevator where they're now stuck."

"Fuck." Avery groans. "Okay, well, we need to get Derek and Jennifer first." She says as her face scrunches up as if the words left a bad taste in her mouth. "They're sitting ducks right now and if it's Jennifer they want, Stiles should be pretty much safe."

"You're right." Scott breathes out as he quickly texts Derek that they're on their way.

Once again, the trio is off running to figure out just where the hell it is that Derek and Jennifer are stuck. As they're running down empty hallways with the light of lightning through the windows guiding Avery- Avery realizes that Peter is in really bad shape. A second later, Scott too notices and doesn't think twice about draping the elder wolf's arm around his neck to keep him running.

"We need to drop Peter off somewhere." Scott grunts. "He's not healing as fast as he used to."

"Perks of being brought back from the dead." Peter grunts out to which Avery grins.

"Well, where do we leave him. The twins  _will_ harm him if they find him."

"Stiles." Scott tells her. "We drop him off in the ambulance with Stiles and Cora."

Avery just nods, watching out where she's running so she doesn't run into anything. The second Scott turns down another hallway, Avery hits a wayward cart, tripping over it. She cringes at the clatter that the glass vials make and Scott skids to a stop to make sure she's okay. Within seconds, Avery's back on her feet and running.

"There!" Scott mutters as he points to a doorway that looks to be leading into the garage. "Stiles is in the ambulance out there."

Avery pushes herself faster, easily running out in front of Scott who's still holding up Peter. When her eyes land on the ambulance, she sighs with relief as she heads for the back door.

"Stiles!" She breathes out quickly as she slams the window with her palm watching her brother's wide-eyed expression. "Stiles, open the door."

Stiles quickly unlocks the doors from the inside. "Oh god, sorry." He mumbles before briefly pulling Avery into a hug. "You're okay!"

"Of course." She scoffs before helping Scott push Peter forward, Stiles taking the hint and helping Peter inside. "I told you your little sis has skills."

He nods before looking around. "Where's Derek and Jennifer?"

"We have to go back for them.."

"-and Melissa." Avery cuts Scott off.

"Okay.. okay." Stiles takes it in and for once, he doesn't argue about his sister helping out. "Well, two problems: Kali's got the keys to this thing and I just saw the twins like thirty seconds ago."

There's the sound of metal hitting metal off in the distance that has Scott and Avery both turning around, and Avery immediately reaching behind her to pull free and arrow.

"Stay here." Scott tells him.

When Scott starts to tug on Avery's elbow for her to follow, she pulls out of his grip- lowering her bow. "Here." She says, reaching into her back pocket and pulling free her dagger. "Just in case." Stiles takes the dagger with a somewhat relieved sigh and just like that, Avery and Scott are back to running inside the hospital.

Their running soon slows down to a walk down an empty hall, and the walk slows down to a complete stop. The way Scott is curiously looking forward and then back has Avery notching her arrow again and setting up in case someone comes out. The sound of a metal instrument falls and both Avery and Scott turn to look in the other direction.

With both their attentions looking the other way- neither of them see the morphed alpha coming up behind them. Avery feels herself being shoved forward, the teen falling as the sound of a fist meeting something wooden echoes down the hall. The arrow goes sliding across the floor, Avery quickly scrambling to her feet when she sees the alpha pushing Scott into the wall before gripping his shirt and hitting the beta's back against a metal shelf.

Scott gets gripped by the throat, thrust up against the wall with feet dangling and as Avery looks down at her trembling hands- because she hadn't expected Ethan or Aiden to actually touch her much less shove her down- she feels a hand wrapping around her throat. In her state of shock and sudden fear, Avery drops her bow as her hands fly up to the much larger one that's holding her as she's pinned up against the wall next to Scott.

" _Where is she?!_ " the mixed angered voice of Aiden and Ethan shout at them. " _We're trying not to hurt you!_ " They yell.

With Avery being only human, and the grip the twins have on her throat, she's nearly out of oxygen from her struggling.

"Try harder." Scott manages to say.

Just before the black spots could morph together and completely take over her vision, Avery sags with relief at the sight of Melissa McCall sneaking up with the paddles of a charged defibrillator. "Hey!" She shouts, gaining the twin's attention. Aiden and Ethan look back at her, dropping Scott and Avery to the floor where Avery sucks in all the air she can and reaches blindly for her bow. "I'd like to try something." Melissa says. The twins take one step towards Melissa and then the twins are twitching rather viciously as if they were being electrocuted. When the twins fall back, coming apart so they're both themselves again, Avery looks up in awe at Scott's mother who's holding the defibrillator paddles. "Sweetheart, Sweetie- get up." She tells both Scott and Avery as she drops the paddles. Scott quickly scrambles to his feet as Melissa holds out her hand for Avery.

Once they're all steadied and Avery checks over her bow to make sure it isn't broken, Scott nudges his Mom down the opposite hall and they're running again. Running away from the twins who- when they come to- are going to be extremely pissed.

When it seems like they've put enough space between them- Scott slows down the girls to a fast walk so he can use his hearing to listen in for incoming enemies.

"What happened with Deucalion?" He suddenly murmurs, looking over his shoulder at his Mom.

"N-nothing." Melissa answers him. "He made me show him where the switch was for the generators, made me turn it off, and then he just let me go. Said it was a gesture of good will, no other reason."

"He had to have a reason." Scott finally realizes.

"Yeah, I don't think he does anything without a reason." Avery voices, butting herself in. "He doesn't seem the type."

"Well, if that means I should continue to be profoundly terrified then don't worry about it. I got that covered." She says quickly, trying to catch her breath.

Avery wraps her arm around Melissa's shoulders in a comforting manner, squeezing her just the slightest into her side. When she's about to open her mouth to verbally comfort her, they run into Scott's hand- stalling them in their tracks- and snaps her mouth shut. Scott's looking forward where a corner is coming up and he's creeping up slowly as if he suspects someone being there.

As Scott continues to slowly creep forward, Avery manages to hear a couple of clicks that has her suddenly putting herself in front of Melissa and reaching back for an arrow. Notching it rather quickly, she steps forward with Scott with her arrow poised and pointed and ready to shoot.

Their steps are slow and careful and just as they turn the corner, they're faced with a startled Chris who's pointing a gun at them, Allison, and Isaac. Avery breathes out a sigh of relief, her lips twitching into a grin when her eyes land on Isaac. She lowers her bow and Chris lowers his gun, and Isaac is rushing forward and wrapping Avery in a hug.

He knows better, knows not to do the whole sudden touching with her, but when it only takes two seconds for Avery to start relaxing in his hold and wrap her arms around him- he knows she's making progress with touching him and he touching her.

"You're safe." Isaac breathes out almost tiredly, tucking Avery's head beneath his chin. "I thought the worst when you weren't answering any of our texts."

"Yeah, well, I've been a bit busy." She nervously chuckles and when she feels Isaac pulling back, his eyes zeroing in on her neck, she tenses once more.

One of Isaac's hands come up, his fingers brushing over the skin of her neck. "Someone's touched you. Here."

Scott's eyes widen at what Isaac is picking up on and to keep the younger wolf from getting rage-filled because he realizes the relationship that's established between the two, he deflects for Avery. "Allison, h-how's Lydia?"

Avery's attention snaps to Allison- Avery quickly pulling away from Isaac as she realizes that Allison's there too and throws her arms around the Huntress. Chris looks shocked, he not knowing that his daughter and Avery were close.

"Hey, I'm glad you're okay. How was Lydia when you last saw her?"

"Fine." Allison assures her, squeezing tightly before letting Avery go. "She has some bruising around her neck but was more worried about you. We heard what happened, are you okay?"

"Yeah.. yeah." Avery quickly waves the attention off. "All healed up and it was totally worth it to see Derek nearly strangle Jennifer to death and then I shot an arrow through her wrist so yeah.. totally good." Allison's lip twitch in brief amusement. "And plus, once this is all over and we have my Dad back and Cora is healed. I have permission to kill the bitch."

Both Allison and Melissa snort at that- Chris and Scott rolling their eyes. "While all this chat is nice, we need to get somewhere safe and come up with a plan."

The girls quickly look at Chris who had spoke and see Scott agreeing along with him. "Okay, well, lead the way." Avery tells them.

Scott takes the lead followed by Melissa, Allison, Isaac who gripped Avery's hand in his own and is running behind them with Chris bringing up the end with his gun. After hurriedly walking for a while, Melissa points Scott to a room that they could use while they come up with a plan.

"Okay, so what are we doing?" Chris asks once he realizes they're heading to a room.

"We need to get Jennifer to safety. She's the only one who can cure Cora and give us Avery and Stiles' Dad back but she'll only do so once she's safe out of the hospital and away from the alphas."

"Well where is she?" Allison asks.

"She and Derek were chased into the elevator by Kali when the generators were shut off."

"So then they're essentially trapped." Chris came to the realization of what they weren't saying as he and Scott pushed open swinging doors to the room they were headed at.

"Yeah. Right." Scott confirms.

"So then there's no way of getting them out without turning the power back on." Isaac realizes.

Allison and Avery hang back, their attention torn between looking out the windows from the swinging doors to see if anyone's coming and listening to their family and friends plot.

"But wait, wait, wait." Melissa cuts in. "If the power's back on, they're going to hear the elevator moving, right?"

"And then they'll be on Jennifer and Derek as soon as it stops." Avery throws in- she and Allison joining the rest of the group by a stretcher they were gathered around.

"We  _can't_ get in a fight with them." Scott tells Chris when it looks as if he were about to suggest it.

Chris sighs and looks over at his daughter. "Well, you've got us now."

"It's too much to risk." Scott denies him. "They want her dead and if she dies-"

"-there's nothing we can do for my Dad or Cora." Avery mumbles, her eyes downcast as the weight of situation fully slams into her.

There's a moment of silence when they all see how it's finally affecting the usually held together Stilinski teen. "I don't even think I know which teacher this is." Chris finally shatters the silence, looking at all the teens and waiting for an explanation.

"She's, uh, she's the one with the brown hair." Isaac mutters without thought. "She's kind of hot." Avery, Scott, and Allison all seem to be nodding along but the moment Isaac says she's hot- they freeze and everyone looks at him with  _are you kidding me_ expressions. "I, uh, it's just an observation." He adds on.

Chris and Melissa look away while Scott and Allison then let their gazes travel to Avery who's glaring at Isaac. When he realizes he's being stared at, he looks down at her. "You want to run that by me one more time?" She says, her voice oddly cold and lethal.

Scott and Allison fight off matching grins, Isaac cheeks flaming red in the dim light. Luckily for him, Allison comes to his rescue. "I seem to recall- on the night I officially met you- you saying something about Ms. Blake strutting her sexy ass in the class."

This time, it's Avery's cheeks who turn red as Isaac calms down and lets a grin tilt his lips upward. "If I don't remember- it didn't happen." She quickly waves off their attention.

Avery ignores Isaac's gaze while Scott, Chris, and Melissa try to wrack their brains for a plan. When Avery looks towards Allison- Allison is grinning at her and Avery's about to tell her off when she realizes something. Her brows furrow together as she tilts her head, staring intensely at Allison when Allison shifts uncomfortably from foot to foot. "What are you looking at?" She mumbles.

"You." Avery tells her bluntly. "You kind of.. you look like.." She trails off and Allison's gaze snaps forward to where she remembered seeing a mirror.

Allison takes a moment to think of who she could possibly look like and when it hits her, she jolts with realization. "I got an idea." She tells the room and immediately has their attention. "They want Ms. Blake, right? Well what if we give them a decoy Ms. Blake." Everyone looks at her,  _really_ looks at and Scott is frantically pulling his phone out. "I'm going to need her shoes.."

"..and the sweater jacket." Avery throws in. "You need to look like her in the dark and smell like her."

Scott quickly nods along, typing out a text on his phone. Moments later, it buzzes back. "Okay, Derek gaze me his location. There's an opening where he can slip me the things. They're not far from here so I should be able to make it without attracting attention."

When Scott quickly leaves the room, Allison gains the remaining occupants attention. "Melissa, I'm going to need you to turn the power back on. You think you can manage that without getting caught?"

"Yeah.. yeah." She answers. "Deucalion had me earlier but he let me go. If I run into them, they won't hold me."

"Good." Allison tells her. "By the time you make it up there, we should have everyone outside and confused."

Melissa nods as she tries to calm her breath for what she's about to do.

"Isaac, Avery," Allison turns to them. "-get outside to my Dad's car. When Scott gets back with Jennifer's things, I'm going to take off and lure whoever is listening to the front entrance. I'm going to leave my phone on video chat on the floor and when you see the twins run by, floor it to the basement to pick up whoever needs to get out."

"Okay.. okay, yeah." Isaac gulps. "We can do that."

"What about me?" Chris asks as he tosses Isaac the keys to his vehicle.

"You'll be outside in the front hiding. Place my bow out of view so when I duck down to pick it up, you come around the corner and shoot. Shoot to kill."

Chris jerks his head in an affirmative manner. "Done."

Scott gets back with the shoes and sweater jacket, handing them to Allison who quickly slips them on. Allison then quickly relays the message to him, Scott finding nothing wrong when he says he's going to stay back on the first floor so when the power gets turned back on, he's going to get Derek and Jennifer. They all agree.

Moments later when they have the plan cemented- Avery and Isaac are sent out first to wait in the car, and Allison tells them that her Dad would be out there shortly. Having memorized the route they came from, Isaac easily leads himself and Avery back outside and inside Mr. Argent's vehicle. Once they get settled in and Isaac turns the car on, he hooks his phone up on the car charger by the radio as they wait for the call.

"So," He drawls when the silence becomes too much. "-are you going to tell me why I smelled another werewolf's scent around your neck or do I have to guess?" He casually asks.

Avery breathes out deeply, shutting her eyes briefly. "You're not going to like the answer to that."

"But it could possibly be better than what I'm thinking." He calmly fires back.

When Isaac calmly looks at her, his expression is hard to read. "Aiden and Ethan had me pinned by my throat against the wall." She finds herself blurting the truth.

Upon hearing the answer, Isaac's eyes dimly glow and yeah, that's not good. "They strangled you!" He grits out.

"Yes and no but it's totally fine." Avery quickly amends. "Ms. McCall was there and shocked the crap out of them with those paddle thingies you see all the time on those cheesy Doctor shows."

Whatever Isaac is about to fire back with, it's cut off with his phone buzzing. He takes a deep breath, calming himself before he reaches over and answers the video call.

"You ready?" Allison immediately asks when her face shows up on the screen.

"Yeah." Isaac sighs and Allison nods.

"You're not nervous, are you?"

"Do I look nervous?" Isaac sasses back.

"No. Not at all." Allison shakes her head with a detained grin and sets her phone on the floor. Isaac rolls his eyes as he looks out the windshield and Avery turns her gaze to the phone to keep an eye on the screen.

" _Did he look nervous?"_ Chris' voice suddenly comes through the speaker.

" _Terrified."_ Allison answers.

Avery holds in a giggle as Isaac looks disbelievingly down at the screen. "Yeah, I can still hear you. Very, very, clearly."

Allison's head suddenly swoops back into view, her expression sheepish. "Just go as soon as you see them, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah I got it."

Avery finally lets herself giggle and she can feel the tense atmosphere of the car lessen. She hears Allison tell her Dad to go that she needs to start running soon and moments later, she sees Chris exit through the front entrance. He quickly makes his way towards them, picking out Allison's bow from the backseat of the car and hiding it by the curb before he hides behind a tree.

Avery starts to get nervous the second she hears Allison's heels clicking in the distance over the phone and moments later, the twins are seen running by on camera. Isaac quickly unhooks his phone, tossing it into Avery's lap and shifts into gear, flooring the gas pedal to make his way around back and into the basement.

Avery can hear gunshots ring out seconds later, the lights are flickering to life through the windows that she can see and before she knows it, they're screeching to a stop by the ambulance where Peter throws open the doors.

Isaac and Avery quickly scramble out of the car to help.

"Come on, come on, come on." Isaac tries to hurry them, Stiles helping steady Cora's unconscious form in Peter's grasp.

"I got it, I got it." Peter assures Stiles. "Get the door." He then tells Isaac.

Avery sees her twin looking at her but then something to the side of him catches his attention. He's looking at a clipboard of forms, his finger running down paper before coming to a stop.

"Stiles?" Avery tries to gain his attention, his fingers trembling over a set of words.

"Stiles, let's go!" Isaac shouts at him.

Avery turns around and sees that Peter and Cora are already in the back seat with Isaac making his way to the driver's side. Stiles looks at Isaac then Avery before his gaze falls back to the paper. He quickly looks over his shoulder, clearly thinking about something before glancing at Avery and booking it in the opposite direction.

"Stiles!" Isaac calls out at his retreating form. Avery quickly runs up to the paper, her eyes catching what her brother had seen. Parent  _or_ Guardian. And just like that, it clicked. Parents are Guardians and Guardians is what Jennifer was collecting. Her stomach suddenly churns at the thought of Melissa being inside as well as Jennifer who she knew for a fact they shouldn't have trusted. "Avery?" Isaac gains her attention.

Her gaze snaps to him, tears clouding her vision- tears of anger for trusting the one who was the Darach and sadness because she knew she wasn't getting her Dad back. Before Isaac could stop her, Avery is running after Stiles.

Through her tears of frustration, she realizes just what a horrible runner her brother is when she easily spots him in her vision. "Hey, Scott! Scott, wait!" She hears her brother say.

She keeps running until she crashes into her brother's back. Stiles, who had stopped because he was staring down at something in the elevator. Getting around him, Avery gasps when she sees Derek sprawled on the floor- Jennifer nowhere to be seen.

"Go. Go!" She shoves her brother in the only direction Scott could have gone. "I'll stay with him." Stiles doesn't need to be told twice as he rushes off after his best friend. With the tears of frustration coming more frequently, Avery kneels down by Derek's body. "Come on, D, please don't be dead." She mumbles as she lays her head down on his chest, ear pressed over his heart only to hear the faint heart beat. She breathes out a sigh of relief, sitting up and moving so that she can maneuver his head onto her lap.

All she could do was sit and wait until Scott and Stiles came back.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Avery's outfit can be found [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/alpha_pact_we_might_fall/set?id=102472659). See the very bottom for some answers to questions I've been asked.

**Alpha Pact**

The minutes seem to be dragging by slowly as Avery sits on bended knees with Derek's head resting on the tops of her thighs. After the tears cleared up and she managed to keep her eyes and ears peeled for any lingering alphas, Avery resorted to gently slapping Derek's cheeks every now and then to rouse him back to consciousness. While she hadn't known him that long, something between her and Derek had clicked from the moment she trusted him with her laptop of information.

It wasn't a romantic click between the two but more of a sense of family click. Like Derek was the older, rebellious brother who maybe sort of reminded her of a mixture between Elijah and Nik though Derek wasn't as vicious.. at least from not what she's seen.

With the lights flickering on and off above her, it only added to her growing sense of unease. Especially with Derek not waking up and Stiles and Scott taking forever to show up.

"Derek?" She slaps his cheek. "Come on, Derek. You need to wake up." She taps his cheek twice more.

Nothing.

A door somewhere off in the distance slams open and jolts Avery back into protection mode. She reaches blindly for her bow and an arrow only to come up empty-handed and it's then she realizes she left everything in the Argent's car. Cursing her stupidity, Avery lets her hand hover over the emergency close button on the elevator button panel but the pounding of shoes against the floor has her stalling. If it were the alphas looking to pick Derek off, they wouldn't let the location of their whereabouts be known.

Before she can slam her hand down on the button, Stiles throws himself into the elevator- heavily panting.

"Stiles?!" He ignores his sister in favor of falling to his knees and shaking Derek, trying to wake him up. "Stiles, where's Scott?" Again he doesn't answer and is now shouting Derek's name. Shouting Derek's name and the urgency in his tone is easy to pick up on.

"Derek?!" Stiles slaps the unconscious alpha with all his strength twice across the face. "Derek, come on!"

"Stiles!" Avery yelps, eyes wide at the brutal force her brother is actually putting behind his slap.

"I'm sorry but he'll understand." Stiles nearly whimpers before grabbing Derek's shirt in his fists and shaking the alpha. Stiles slaps him again and Avery actually flinches at the sound but Derek doesn't wake.

Stiles reels his hand up again, ready to slap but he stalls and closes his hand into a fist. He brings his fist down, ready to punch Derek across the face but Derek releases a small gasp and catches his forearm before he can make contact.

Avery and Stiles both sigh in relief, Derek still gripping Stiles' arm as he glances around the elevator and up at Avery who's hovering above his head. His gaze darts around the elevator again before his brows slightly furrow. "Where is she?" He rasps.

"Jennifer?" Stiles blurts. "Gone. With Scott's mom."

Avery's hand flies up to her mouth in shock, angry tears threatening to make a reappearance. "She took her?" Derek actually seems shocked.

"Yeah and if that's not enough of kick to the balls, Scott left with Deucalion. Okay, so we got to get you out of here. Police are coming right now. We got to get you the hell out of here."

"Whoa." Derek breathes when Stiles abruptly pulls him up, Avery bracing her hands on Derek's back in case he fell backward. "What about Cora?"

"Peter and Isaac have her." Avery supplies. "They're supposed to be off Hospital grounds by now but there's no telling with those two."

Derek nods and lets Stiles finally pull him to his feet. There's a moment where he sways, closing his eyes to shake his head clear while Avery and Stiles both steady the alpha on his feet. "I'm good.. I'm good." He repeats. "Lets go."

As Stiles helps Derek jog, Avery leads the way towards the front entrance as Stiles tells them more about why Scott felt like he had to join Deucalion.

A howl sounds in the distance which causes the three of them to freeze. "What was that?" Avery hears her brother ask before turning around to find Derek looking up and around at nothing as if trying to figure that out himself.

"I think they're retreating." He breathes.

"Good, now lets go." Avery hurries them but Stiles only pushes Derek towards her and starts walking backwards. "Stiles, what are you doing?"

"You two go." He tells her. "I need to stay here and deal with the Police. Tell them that Melissa's missing without giving away too much. I'll stall them."

Before Avery can argue with him, Derek cuts her off. "He's right. Someone needs to stall the Police so we can get away. If anyone can lie their ass off, it's your brother."

Avery snaps her mouth shut but only for a second. "Fine but be careful." Stiles nods, pushing Derek towards her and even though he's heavy as hell, she picks up one of his arms to wrap around her shoulders to help him jog since it seems to be taking him a while to come out of his daze. "And don't incriminate yourself! I won't bail you out." She yells over her shoulder.

Stiles doesn't say anything but Derek manages a feeble grin as Avery helps him to the driver side of his vehicle. Once he's steadied on his own, Avery runs around and hops in the passenger seat. From her seat, she can see Derek subtly sniffing the air as his gaze darts around the parking lot. After a few seconds pass by, he quickly gets in and starts the engine.

"They're still here." He tells her when he can feel her gaze on him. "Isaac and the Argents- they're around back."

"Of course they are." Avery sighs when Derek throws the car into gear and drives towards where his instincts are telling him to.

And sure enough, at the back of the hospital- Allison, Isaac, and Chris Argent are standing in the middle of the back parking lot. Derek pulls up to a stop before both he and Avery are jumping out of their respective doors.

"Where's Scott and Stiles?" Allison immediately questions when she realizes no-one else is getting out of the car.

Derek quickly moves to get Cora from the Argent's vehicle while Isaac sighs in relief once Avery is in his arms once more and safe. "Stiles is still inside the hospital. He's going to hold off the cops for us." Allison looks confused at Derek's words and when she catches Avery's gaze- Avery sadly looks away. "We have to go. Right now." Derek then says to Isaac and Avery- Isaac letting Avery go so he can open up the door for Derek to deposit Cora in his own vehicle while Avery quickly scrambles to retrieve her bow and quiver of arrows.

"What about Scott and Melissa?" Chris asks.

"Jennifer took Melissa." Derek answers him after settling Cora in his backseat.

Chris softly curses as he looks away, more likely trying to hatch up a plan while Isaac seems frozen in disbelief. Derek catches Avery's gaze, nodding towards his vehicle and she takes that as her cue to get in.

"What about Scott?" Allison says, making Avery freeze halfway into his car. Derek looks back at Allison, not saying anything and then continues to make his way to the driver's side. "Derek, where's Scott?!"

Derek freezes and catches Avery's attention before turning back to Allison and Chris who are awaiting his answer. Avery softly curses to herself, biting the corner of her bottom lip as she prepares to tell Allison the bad news. "He left with Deucalion." She says loud enough for the Argents to hear and yeah- they were definitely not expecting that. "Deucalion promised that he'd help get his Mom and my Dad back if he joined him."

Chris and Allison are both shocked by that confession, Allison shaking her head as if denying it. Scott wouldn't join them. He couldn't. "Avery." Derek gains her attention. "We need to go."

Avery nods as she goes to get in the passenger seat, Isaac getting in the back as Derek takes the driver seat. She's already rolling down her window as Derek drives forward, the alpha slowing down when Avery sticks her head out. "I'm sorry! He'll come back. He has to." She tells Allison.

The last thing Avery sees through her side mirror is Chris wrapping his daughter in a side way hug as he leads her to their car. Avery quickly sits back in her seat, rolling up the window and sighing. Everything that had happened was just catching up to her and a million ideas were flashing in her mind. Feeling a hand on her shoulder, she opens her eyes and peers back only to have Isaac staring at her in worry. Giving him a small smile to let him know she was fine, Avery turns back around in her seat.

There's no music playing as Derek speeds well over the given limit to hurry and get them back to his place. The storm has seemed to calm down, the only thing being a steady rain fall and the winds being a bit stronger than normal.

Completely by chance, Avery hears the creak of hard plastic and her eyes dart to the steering wheel. Derek's grip on the wheel is a little too tight and when she glances at his face, he's clenching his jaw and staring straight ahead. His grip on the wheel moves a bit before tightening once more.

"Derek?" She finally says. When he shows no sign of answering her, she calls again. "Derek!" She knows he can hear her because the second time, he flinches just the slightest when she raised her voice but she doesn't know  _why_ he's purposely ignoring her. He spoke just fine to her when they were still inside the hospital. "Derek, come on, what's going on? You're tense as hell right now and even though I'm not a werewolf, I can still-"

"Drop it!" He suddenly snaps causing Avery to jump at his tone and Isaac to growl in the back seat. At the sound of Isaac's growl and the dim light in the car from the electronic gauges, Avery can actually see Derek become sheepish and regretful for his actions. "Sorry. I'm so-"

"It's fine." Avery cuts him off, gulping and trying to calm herself down. When Isaac's growling doesn't let up, Avery turns around in her seat. "Isaac, that's enough!" And instantaneously, he stops. Derek actually snorts but when Avery turns her gaze on him, he school his features as to show no emotion. "Seriously, though, what's going on?"

Derek's grip tightens once more and for a second, Avery doesn't think he's going to tell them. "It's my fault." He mutters. "Jennifer..  _Julie_  told me how it was that we were connected. It's my fault."

"Derek," Avery sighs. "-it's not-"

"It is!" He tells her, effectively cutting her off. He sets his gaze straight ahead out the windshield again, his grip on the steering wheel tightening and loosening. "When I was younger," He starts, gulping once while trying to get himself under control. "-when I was younger, I killed someone. Someone I deeply cared for." Avery closes her eyes when she hears him say that- part of her wanting him to stop because she knows that he's talking about Paige and she doesn't want him to relive that but the other part of her- she wants to know as much as she can. "It was a mercy kill- she asked me to do it but it was a kill nonetheless."

Derek goes quiet once more- Avery knowing that he's trying to hold himself together while he tells them this but Isaac thinks he's stopping there. "What does that have to do with Jennifer?" He prods.

The car falls into a silence once more. "There's an abandoned underground cellar out in the woods." Derek finally admits. "A little ways away from Hale land and that's where I killed her. It was a sacred meeting place for ancient Celtic Druids who chose a large old tree in a grove to basically worship. They built around it, worshiped it, gave up sacrifices over to it." He sighs. "It's called a Nemetom but that specific Nemeton hadn't been worshiped in years. It held no power." Derek takes a moment to breath before going on. "When I killed her, we were sitting there on the roots. She bleed out over it but we didn't think nothing of it at the time. Turns out, the blood of a virgin sacrifice gave the Nemeton a spark of power. That spark of power is what saved Jennifer when the alphas turned against their Emissaries. She was Kali's Emissary, the one Kali couldn't kill and when she left, Jennifer crawled her way to the tree. She found the power, tapped into it, and made an Oath that she'd teach the alphas that their monstrous actions wouldn't be overlooked. But to get the power, she needed to commit sacrifices."

" _Christ._ " Avery breathes out in shocked awe. "That's how she turned Dark."

"You see." Derek mumbles. "It's my fault."

"Stop saying that!" She groans. "You didn't know what you were doing back then. You couldn't have! This Julie chick is just trying to play with your mind so you'll bend easily to her will. None of this is your fault. It's all her, you hear me? It's her!"

For the remainder of the car trip, no-one says anything else.

..

..

For some reason, the trip up to Derek's loft is tense all over again. Even though Avery is very much human, the tension is very palpable in the air around them. She's jogging side-by-side with Isaac while Derek is out in front of them cradling Cora to his chest. One quick glance at Isaac lets her know that it's he who is causing the tense atmosphere. He's obviously trying his best to mask whatever it is he's currently feeling but the tick in his jaw and the way he's glaring at Derek's back is obvious.

When Isaac doesn't make a move to help open the door for Derek and Cora, Avery resists the urge to roll her eyes and does it all on her own. Derek quickly moves to deposit Cora on the bed towards the back right corner of his loft while Isaac moves to pace up and down while he continues to glare at Derek and glance worriedly down at Cora.

Footsteps sounding from the metal staircase catch Avery off guard and she quickly notches an arrow on her bow only to be met by a clearly amused Peter holding his hands up in surrender. "It's only me."

Avery sighs, willing her erratically beating heart to calm down as she lowers her bow. "When did you get here? Last I saw you, you were in the backseat with Cora."

"Yes, well," Peter scowled. "The Argents showed up. The last they saw of me, they were helping to set me on fire while my nephew killed me. I didn't want to stir up another fight."

"I see." She mumbles before turning back to Derek and watches as he strips Cora out of her jacket.

Derek gets his sister as comfortable as he can, shoving a fluffed up pillow beneath her head while dragging a blanket up to cover her. When he's done all he can, Derek sits on a small wooden bench by his sister's side while she weakly coughs and stirs. Avery comes up behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder as Isaac comes to stand by her.

Black blood coats Cora's lips as she continues to cough and with every cough, Derek becomes more tense. "She's dying, isn't she?"

"I don't know." Derek murmurs, his eyes not leaving his sister's form.

"So what are you going to do?" Isaac asks and when Avery looks up at him, she can see the anger in his eyes though he's keeping his voice down.

There's a moment of silence that scares Avery before Derek answers with another, "I don't know." Upon hearing his answer, Avery deflates with a tinge of sadness starting to creep in.

Isaac sighs and turns, scratches the back of his head before facing them again. "Wanna figure something out? Because while Scott and Stiles are out there trying to keep people from getting killed-" His voice starts to raise a little and dread pools at the bottom of Avery's stomach. The last thing they need right now is a fight. "-you were in here rolling around the sheets with the actual killer!"

"Isaac!" Avery breathes out in shock at what he just said.

"No." Isaac snaps at her. "Don't defend him. Do you get how many people she's actually killed?" He asks while glancing between both Derek and Avery. "Erica and Boyd are dead. Cora is dying and you are doing  _nothing_!" Avery clenches her jaw at Isaac's sudden anger towards Derek and the entire situation- turning her whole body towards Isaac and standing between him and Derek. He glances down at her, some of his anger vanishing but he easily looks over her head and deflates a little. "Why'd you do this to us, Derek?" He says, his voice on the verge of cracking. "Is this all about the power? Were you bored?"

"Isaac, stop it! That's enough." Avery grits out.

Once again, he ignores her and steps around her and up to Derek, bending at the waist so his face is looking directly at Derek's. "Were you lonely?"

Avery's eyes nearly bug out of her head, completely flabbergasted that Isaac had the audacity to even ask that when Cora is merely three feet away from them. "Maybe." She hears Derek answer and yeah, the vulnerability she knows that Derek is showing right now just sent her over the edge.

Grabbing the back of Isaac's shirt, Avery grips it and tugs him back harshly. "That's e-fuckin'-nough, Lahey." She nearly snarls at him and both Peter and Isaac seem shocked by her actions. "We're all freaking out, okay? But that doesn't give you a reason to verbally attack him when his sister's dying less than five feet from him."

When Isaac stumbles to a stop, his eyes flash yellow. "What are you taking his side for? You're my girlfriend, remember? You should be taking up my side and not the person who's at fau-"

"Just shutup!" Avery yells at him, her anger spiking at his immaturity for throwing in their less than one week relationship into this, though that only causes his eyes to flash brighter. "What? You going to attack me like you did Allison at school? You going to claw at me too?" Isaac's lips curl up in a sneer but after a moment of silence, his eyes dim and he seems to deflate some. "And even though this has absolutely nothing to do with what's going on, I am your girlfriend but you're lashing out at Derek when no-one really has any idea what they're doing. It's not fair to him and you know that so back off." She pleas with a sigh.

Isaac seems like he's going to back off, like he's calming down but at the sound of Derek's meek voice- he loses it. "I told Cora I wouldn't leave. I'll help the others when I figure out how to help her."

"THERE'S NO TIME!" Isaac hollers at him, pinching the bridge of his nose when he see's Avery jump at the sound of his voice. He glances back and forth between Derek and Avery before turning and making his way to the loft door. "The full moon's coming. The Sheriff and Melissa are going to be dead so I'm going to try and help them." He yanks open the door and steps out, taking one last look at the loft's occupants. "You can all sit here and perfect the idea of doing nothing." He says before harshly sliding the door shut.

Avery jumps once more at the sound of the door shutting, blinking back tears as she tries to get herself under control. She can't help but feel like whatever was happening between her and Isaac just fizzled out. They couldn't even make it a week together without getting into a major fight and have him storming off.

"I wouldn't take it personally." Peter's voice suddenly booms in the quietness of the loft. "Anger is just a tool. He's using it to excuse shifting allegiance from one alpha to another. From you to Scott." Peter clarifies just in case they didn't get it.

"Scott's not an alpha yet." Derek mutters.

"But he's on his way, isn't he?"

"Dammit, Peter!" Avery glares at him. "Do I need to yell at you too?"

Peter grins at her before going to stand by the windows and look out over the city while Avery rolls her eyes. She takes a deep breath before centering herself and walking over to the small bench and nudging Derek's knee with her own. He glances up at her before scooting over and letting her take a seat next to him. Before either of them can say anything, Avery's phone beeps in her pocket.

With a small groan, she retrieves her phone only to find a text message from Stiles before opening it up while nudging Derek again, and tilting the screen so he can read it too.  _'FBI grilled me. I told them I was stuck in the elevator the entire time and he believed me but we have another problem. We found out the third parent to be kidnapped. Someone left the name 'Argent' on the elevator doors so I'm with Allison and Chris now. Chris doesn't seem to be concerned so we're mapping out Dad and Melissa's whereabouts. How's Cora?'_

Simultaneously, Avery and Derek sigh. As Derek goes back to watching over Cora, Avery texts her brother back.  _'Not good. We don't know how to help her and Isaac left us. There was a big blow up between him and Derek, and then an argument between us. If he shows up, keep an eye on him.'_

Stiles hadn't texted her back after that and Avery took that as a sign to settle in for a long night. She went from sitting side-by-side with Derek, to pacing all around the loft when she got restless, and even managed to doze off for what felt like a couple of hours. When she woke up, it was to Derek shaking her shoulder.

Avery had moved to jump up and even reached for her bow but Derek held her down while muttering that it was just him. It took him a moment to calm her down but when he did, he had starting spouting off about vampire blood. He had remembered Avery drinking vampire blood to heal her wounds and wondered if the blood would heal his sister. When Avery frowned and shook her head at him, she deflated and felt the need to explain.

Vampire blood was only useful if the being didn't have an instantaneous healing ability like vampires and werewolves did. Derek sighed at his idea not helping any and went back to sitting by Cora's side. Since she was already awake, Avery stood and went in search of any type of food that Derek might have had. Peter was sitting on the couch in an almost bored manner as he flipped through books so she didn't pay him much mind. When she found no food that was edible, she went to stand by the windows and watch the sun come up.

Checking her phone, she found no updates from Stiles and nothing from Isaac. As she stood there and brainstormed- the sun continued to rise and with it's rise, Cora started to struggle with her breathing. Avery immediately ran to her side and watched on as Derek started to panic. He sat on the bed next to her and took his sister's forearm in his hand. Immediately, Avery saw the black veins appear and knew he was taking her pain.

Derek breathed in deeply, closed eyes and clenched his jaw as he continued to siphon Cora's pain away. Cora's breathing became ragged before she took a big gulp of air only to hold it in and gently release it while now it seemed Derek was struggling. "Careful." Peter crept close to them as he watched his nephew work.

Derek released Cora's arm, bringing his own arm closer to himself as he breathed through the pain. "Don't worry. I know going too far can kill me."

"That's not exactly what I meant." Peter told him.

Derek blinked, his gaze swimming for just a moment, and Avery can just see the wheels turning in his head as he thought about his Uncle's words. "What's that supposed to mean?" He finally asks.

When Avery looks towards Peter, she catches him fighting off a grin. When he sees her looking, he completely schools his features to be nonchalant and he shrugs. "I've heard it's something only an alpha can do and with good reason."

Derek stands as he looks between his sister and Uncle. "Which is?"

"You know normal wolves never abandon an injured member of the pack." Peter explains. "They care for it. They bring it food from a kill.. regurgitate it into the mouth of the injured wolf. They even give it physical and emotional comfort by intensely grooming it. In a way, they can do more than just ease pain. They can be instrumental in healing their own."

Derek takes it all in before moving to the table Peter's at and leaning on it. "If you're trying to tell me I can save her.. just tell me!"

"I'm telling you I've heard it's possible." Peter says.

"How?"

"It's that spark of power that makes you an alpha." Right away, something doesn't feel right and Avery starts to unconsciously shake her head at Peter's words. "When you take her pain, she draws on the power that provides you with those special gifts. The power that heightens your senses, your strength, the power that transforms your body. As an alpha, you have that bit of extra. That spark that intensifies the color of your eyes from a bright yellow into a searing red."

"If I can save her-"

" _If._ " Peter cuts Derek off. "If. I didn't say it works every time." Peter takes a step back when Derek seems to mull it over in his head and turns his back on them to look out the window. "It could just as easily kill you."

Derek hangs his head before picking it up to look over at Cora. "How do I do it? By taking her pain?"

"And then some." Peter calls over his shoulder. "Because there's a cost."

The two family members fall into a silence as Avery's gaze darts back and forth between the two. She's waiting for an explanation or something to figure out why Derek looks like he has no other choice and Peter is so nonchalant about the whole thing. When neither men say anything, Avery practically flails. "Uh, hello? What cost? What's going on?"

Derek completely avoids her gaze but Peter is happy to talk. "Tapping into that spark of power as an alpha to heal his or her own is basically sacrificing that spark. It's a one time thing for an alpha so without the spark of power- the alpha becomes a beta."

"No." Avery blurts. "Derek, no." He whirls around, eyebrows nearing his hairline. "I'm sorry but I can't sit here and watch you sacrifice your alpha status." She says. "There is still Kali who's taken things with you to a personal level and she'll slaughter you. You can't give up that power."

"I don't care about power. Not anymore." Derek tells her honestly.

Avery clenches her jaw and wills herself not to cry. "But.. but what if this is what Jennifer was hoping for, huh? She would know the only way to save Cora would be giving up your power. Maybe that's what she wanted you to do at the hospital."

Derek eyebrows furrow. "Why?"

"So that you wouldn't be able to face the alphas without her!" Peter jumps in. "She wants you to come to her. It's all part of her little seduction and she is still seducing you. She needs you on her side."

Derek glances between the two as he shakes his head at them before sighing and returning to Cora's side. Avery mentally curses as she closes her eyes and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Fuck it." She decides. "You do what you got to do." She tells him. "I need to get home and change out of these clothes-" she grimaces as she tugs at he hem of her shirt. "-and get something to eat in my system. If I hear from anyone, I'll text you."

Derek numbly nods as he places his chin in one of his hands. "Peter can drive you home. If you don't meet up with the others, come back here. I don't want you alone."

"Aye, aye, Alpha." Avery mockingly salutes him behind his back as she makes her way towards the door.

With a snort, Peter gets the car keys from Derek and follows the human out as she collects her things.

..

..

On the drive back to her house, neither of them speak. She gets a text from Stiles telling her that Isaac showed up at Allison's offering his help. It feels like some weight is lifted off her shoulders when she hears Isaac is okay and helping out. He then goes on to tell her that he's heading to school to keep up appearances because the FBI will most likely keep an eye out on him since they realized their Dad is missing too. Avery asks if she needs to be at school but Stiles tells her it's fine. The guy from the FBI knows their Dad and knows him but he wouldn't know about her so she's safe to run amok with the wolves.

Peter had sniffed out the change of Avery's demeanor and when he asked about it- about what she was reading on her phone- she told him while shooting off a quick text to fill in Derek.

By the time she got to her home, Peter actually told her to be careful before he backed out and left her standing alone in front of her home. As she made her way inside, she was hit with just how empty the house was. There was no sports event playing on the TV that her Dad usually put on for background noise, Stiles wasn't rummaging through kitchen cabinets or attempting to cook a healthy meal, nor was he upstairs researching some random facts up in his or her room.

For once, she experienced what it's like to truly be alone and she did not like it one bit.

Pushing the thought of being utterly alone to the back of her mind and making herself believe that her brother was only at school- that they'd be getting their Dad back soon- Avery collects herself and makes her way upstairs. Once in her room, before she can gather up clothes for a shower, her phone beeps yet again with a text message. When she looks at it, she finds that it's from Lydia.

_'Are you going to school today?'_

_'No.'_ Avery texts back with a sigh.  _'Are you okay to be there after what you've been through?'_

_'Yes.'_ Lydia immediately replies.  _'Someone tried to strangle me and I survived. I shouldn't be ashamed about that. I shouldn't hide.'_

Avery grinned after that. She'd never tell Lydia to her face in fear of inflating the teen's ego but Lydia was truly an inspiration.  _'You're my hero, you know that? :) I have some stuff to deal with but Stiles should be there at school. Keep an eye on him, will you? He's not taking Dad's disappearance well.'_

_'Of course. Please, be careful out there.'_

_'I will.'_

When Lydia doesn't text back, Avery picks out her under wear from her dresser and heads into the bathroom. She can't remember the last time she's actually skipped a shower and with everything that had been going on, a steaming hot water is a welcome relief. After she gets the water to the temperature she usually prefers, she hurriedly strips out of her grimy clothing and hops on in.

She doesn't waste any time in lathering up her wash cloth with soap and starts scrubbing her body clean. There's dry, caked on blood on her- blood that isn't hers and has no idea who or where it came from. The rain water has dirtied and tangled her hair so shampoo and conditioner is a great relief once scrubbed in and then washed out. The shaving, face cleansing, and brushing of the teeth is done all rather quickly and sufficiently that Avery soon finds herself wringing out the water from her hair and stepping out onto the small piece of carpet by the tub.

With the overhead fan sucking out all the steam, Avery is able to dry herself off without any steam lingering to dampen her skin or make her clothes cling to her skin once she dressed. She quickly pulls on her under garments before furiously towel drying her hair. When no more water drips, she pulls out her hair dryer to finish the job before adding in some hair product to keep her natural waves from frizzing.

Since the house is empty, Avery has no second thoughts about walking to her room in just her under wear. Once in her room, she pulls out a pair of of dull red skinny jeans from her dresser and a matching dull red slim fit tank top. Opening up her closet doors, she finds an over-sized striped mesh shirt and pulls it on over her red top. She's about to close the doors to head downstairs to find something to eat when her eyes land on her shoes. She knows she could slip some on later but with how everything has been going on, she has a feeling everything needs to be rushed. Instead of going against instinct, she grabs the first pair of boots she finds which happen to be a dark brown pair that come up to mid-calf.

After getting downstairs and into the kitchen, making a sandwich and finding a half can of sour cream and onion pringles seemed like the perfect snack because almost as soon as she finishes, her phone rings upstairs. Normally, she wouldn't rush to a ringing phone but given the previous day's events, Avery finds herself taking the stairs two at a time.

She has to practically throw herself on her bed once she enters her room just to grab her phone and answer it before it can go to voicemail. "H-hello?!" She pants into the phone.

" _She took him."_ a feminine voice crackles through the speaker.  _"Avery, she took my Dad. He knew he was going to be taken and he willingly sacrificed himself to her. Wh- why would he do that?!"_

"Allison?" Avery squeaks. "Slow down." She tells her friend as she moves to sit up at the edge of her bed. "What happened?"

She can hear Allison breathe in deeply before blowing it out.  _"Isaac, my Dad, and I came back to the vault. He thought that Melissa and your Dad would be here but they weren't. We came in, he tased Isaac, and handcuffed me to the bars while he willingly let Jennifer take. I don't know- what are we going to do?!"_

Avery sighs as she pinches the bridge of her nose, standing and making her way downstairs. "Where are you? I'm coming to get you. Is Isaac okay?"

" _I- I'm fine. We're both fine and we still have the car here. You don't need to-"_

"Yes, I do." Avery cuts her off. "Just tell me where you are."

" _We're still at the vault. Hang on, Isaac wants to- Avery?"_

"Hi, Isaac." Avery breathes out, fighting off a grin seeing as how Isaac took the phone from Allison. "Are you really okay?"

" _Yeah, yeah.. I'm fine. Just a little confused but- but that's not what I wanted to say. I wanted- I just wanted to say I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-"_

"It's fine. Don't worry about." Avery says as she locates her helmet in the downstairs closet. "We're all stressed and you lashed out. It's perfectly understandable."

" _Yeah but I-"_

"Isaac, seriously, it's fine." Avery grumbles. "If you want to apologize, just give me a hug when I get there."

There's a moment of silence before Isaac speaks.  _"O-okay."_

They give a quick good-bye before Avery finds herself slinging her bow and quiver of arrows across her back once again. She picks up a spare hair-tie from a side table and quickly ties her hair into a low sloppy bun before jogging outside. As she pulls her helmet on over her head, she just prays that there's no any police patrolling because she doesn't know what to tell them about the bow and arrows on her back.

..

..

By the time Avery gets to the abandoned bank, she parks her bike by Allison's Dad's car and rushes inside. When she finally finds Isaac and Allison, Isaac seems to be holding the tearful girl together as he holds her gently in a sideways hug.

Once spotted, it's like the dam breaks and Allison chokes out a sob. Avery rushes at her, wrapping the teen in a hug and squeezing her tightly. "Shh. It's okay. We're going to get them back." She tries soothing her friend. "We're going to get him back." Allison continues to sob and tremble in her friend's embrace as she shakes her head in denial. Avery catches Isaac's gaze behind Allison's back and he offers her a feeble smile. She musters up the strength to smile back, using her hands to rub up and down Allison's back before pulling back and rubbing her arms. "Come on. We need to get out of here. Lydia and Stiles are at school and Derek might have a solution for Cora."

"W-what is it?" Isaac immediately asks.

Avery catches Isaac's gaze. "Something I'm not sure I even want him to do but it's little sister. He's going to do what he has to."

"What'd he find out?" Allison suddenly murmurs.

"Well, being an alpha, he can leech off more pain than a beta can." Avery tells them. "He can tap into that spark of power that makes him an alpha to fully heal Cora but it's going to come at a price." Both Allison and Isaac hold their breath and Avery closes her eyes. "The price of healing Cora will turn Derek back into a beta. He won't be an alpha anymore."

"He can't do that." Allison immediately shakes her head. "The alphas will be on him in a heart beat. They'll tear him apart."

"That's pretty much what I told him." Avery sighs. "But she's dying. If there's a possibility that he can possibly save her, he's going to take it."

Isaac sighs but doesn't say anything. Part of Avery wants Isaac to fight for Derek- to say he doesn't want him to do it but if what Peter said was true and Isaac switched allegiance to Scott- Isaac won't care much for Derek's power status.

When he only shrugs in response as Avery catches his eye, she blows out her breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding and moves to hug him. For once, it's Isaac's who's tense when they hug but as Avery holds him tight, she can feel him relaxing until he eventually angles his head down and buries his face in the crook of her neck.

He breathes in deeply and his arms tighten around her petite frame. As Avery reaches up to scratch the hair at the nape of his neck, Allison shyly grins before turning around to give them a bit of privacy. When Avery tilts her head to the side, she can feel the Isaac hot warm breath on her neck before eventually his tongue comes out and swipes a path there. Letting him get that out of his system, Avery pulls back before catching his face in the palms of her hand and plants a kiss on his lips.

"I think we did pretty good for our first fight."

Isaac snorts at her, pressing a kiss of his own to her lips before moving up and pecking her forehead. "Yeah. Let's not do that again."

"Agreed."

Allison then turns back around when she hears them talking. "So what do we do now? Who do we go to?"

Before Avery can answer, her phone blares from her back pocket. As she quickly digs it out, she sees Lydia's name and picture taking up the screen and when she answers it, she puts it on speaker for Allison's human hearing. "Lydia? What happened?"

" _Quite a bit, actually."_ Lydia's voice comes through.  _"Your brother had a panic attack during school, the FBI is currently interrogating him once more, and we may have found out where John, Chris, and Melissa are being held."_

Allison and Isaac immediately perk up at hearing they may know the location of the parents. "Lydia? Where are they? Where's my Dad?" Allison squeaks.

" _They're being held at the Nemeton. It's a place of worship that Derek should know it's location. I'm headed there now since Stiles got held back."_

"Yeah." Allison breathes. "I've heard stories about that place."

"Well, you wouldn't happen to know it's location, would you?" Avery asks.

"No. Gerard would but he'd want something in return and we don't have time to be solving his ridiculous riddles right now."

" _Yes, well, that's why I'm going to Derek's."_

"Yeah, okay, well we'll meet you there." Avery tells her. Lydia okays that idea but before she can hang up, Avery asks about Stiles. "And, Lydia, how's Stiles holding up? That panic attack didn't-"

" _He's fine."_ Lydia assures her. There's a brief pause in the conversation and Lydia just knows that Avery wants more of an answer.  _"I.. I, uh, I might have read somewhere that getting someone to hold their breath can stop a panic attack so I kissed him."_

Avery and Allison's eyes widen just a bit and Isaac looks like he's fighting a grin. "You.. you kissed him?!" Avery squeaks in a surprised manner. "But you like Aiden. Or you liked Aiden." Avery babbles. "Lydia, why did you-"

" _I panicked, okay? He couldn't calm himself down because Isaac, the bright one he is decided to tell him that they took Allison's Dad. He doesn't think we're going to get there in time."_

"We will." Avery states with confidence. "We're going to get them back but Lydia.." Avery sighs and moves a little ways away from Allison and Isaac. "I'm sure you know how my brother felt about you in the past and I believe you when you say you panicked and kissed him to help him but if this reawakens old feelings and he-"

" _It won't, okay? After everything we've been through, I wouldn't lead Stiles on. Not him. And I love you so you can stuff the whole big sister speech. There's no need to kill me."_

"Oh, no." Avery grins as she turns back to her friends. "I like you too much to kill you. I would've just physically hurt you and then took you out for sundaes later or something."

" _That makes me feel so much better."_ Lydia deadpans.

The three standing around in the vault chuckle. "Okay so, Derek's? Don't go in without us."

" _Don't plan on it. Bye."_

The three of them start making their way out of the bank and they only make it a few feet before Avery gasps and stops walking. "What? What is it?" Isaac instantly goes on guard, his nails lengthening into claws.

"Lydia." Avery breathes out in awe as she stares down at her phone. "I, uh, had a missed text from Stiles. They figured out what Lydia is."

"What do you mean  _what Lydia is_?" Isaac asks. "Isn't she human?"

"Not exactly." Allison and Avery mumble in unison. Avery looks down one last time before looking up at her friends awaiting her answer. "She's a banshee."

"Well this day just keeps getting better and better." Allison frowns. "Can we worry about that later?"

Avery quickly nods. "Of course." She pockets her phone and heads towards Allison's car. "Can I put my bow and arrows in the backseat? I don't want to pass up a Cop and get stopped."

"Yeah." Allison agrees.

After Avery sets her stuff in the backseat of the car, she heads for her motorcycle only for Isaac to follow her. When Avery quirks an eyebrow at him, he sheepishly grins. "I figured I could ride with you but if you don't want me to, I can-"

"It's fine." Avery smiles up at him. "In fact, you drive."

There's a split second where Isaac looks shocked but as Avery climbs atop her bike and scoots back, Isaac eagerly moves to throw his leg over and start up the bike. After Avery pulls her helmet down over head and wraps her arms around Isaac's waist, she catches Allison gazing at them as the Huntress wiggles her eyebrows suggestively at her.

Flipping her off with a hidden grin, Avery tells Isaac to take the lead.

..

..

By the time they get to the loft and are about to pile into the sketchy elevator, Isaac pulls back.

"I'm just going to wait down here." He mumbles.

He looks sheepish and a bit wary but Avery tries to pull him in. "He's not mad if that's what you're worried about. The argument is completely behind y'all already."

"Yeah, well, still. You go. Find out the location and I'll wait down here."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah." Isaac nods as he lets go of Avery's hand but before the elevator door can close, Allison steps out.

"You know, I'm going to stay down here too. We're not exactly on best terms to be showing up in each other's place of home." Avery or Lydia don't bother fighting Allison on her decision because they all know the history between the Argents and Hales.

Halfway up, Avery caves under Lydia's gaze but tells her that now is not the time for the story of Isaac and Derek, and if she lets it go right now, they'll soon have a girl's day to themselves where they can gossip about anything and everything. Lydia quickly agrees and waits in silence as the elevator stops at the top floor.

As Avery opens up the elevator gate door, Lydia walks out in front and struts as confidently as she can up to the door and knocks. Avery snorts at her friend in amusement because had it been her, she'd have just marched right on in and demanded answers.

Seconds later, the door slides open and Peter's gaze immediately zeros in on Lydia. "You." Lydia breathes as she stares at him.

"Me." Peter says.

Avery's gaze darts back and forth- almost as if watching a tennis match between the two and she almost laughs at Peter's  _oh shit_ expression.

"You." Lydia breathes with just a hint of hostility.

"Me." Peter nearly groans as he rolls his eyes downward. "Derek, we have a visitor." He then calls out over his shoulder.

Lydia squares her shoulder and without another word, she pushes past Peter into the loft with Avery on her heels. When Avery hears the door slide shut behind them and feels a presence behind her, she catches Peter already caught up with them.

Flashing him a grin, Avery can't help but smirk. "What's the matter, Peter? Afraid of a little girl?"

Peter bares his teeth at her in a playful manner which causes Avery to chuckle. Moving further into the loft where Derek's seated and staring warily at them, Peter moves to take a seat while Avery and Lydia choose to stand.

"What's going on?" Derek asks.

"Stiles and Lydia know where our parents are being kept." Avery answers and then looks to Lydia for her to finish.

When all eyes slide over to said girl, she rolls her eyes. "They're being held at the Nemeton. Stiles sent me here to tell you because some FBI guy cornered him."

"The Nemeton." Peter groans. "Of course."

"Well," Avery shrugs. "-what are we waiting for? You're going to help us, right? Lead us to the location?"

"It's not that simple." Derek deadpans. "We don't-"

"You don't know where it is?" Lydia guesses. "But Stiles said you been there."

"We have." Peter admits but won't meet her gaze as he spares a quick glance at Derek. "But after a few memorable experiences there, Talia- Derek's Mother, my older sister- decided that she didn't want us ever going back." He says before finally looking up at Lydia. "She knew how dangerous it was and took the memory of it's location from us."

Avery deflates at that piece of information. "But then how are we supposed to find it?"

Peter shrugs and looks to Derek only to have Derek purse his lips in contemplation. Cora coughs in the background and when Avery's about to ask for an update with their plans, Lydia's phone starts to ring.

Lydia pulls out her phone without batting an eye, proclaiming it's Stiles and answers it. When she doesn't put it on speaker, Avery scoots closer and leans in to hear what's going on.

" _Did you talk to Derek?"_

"Yeah but his Mom took the location of the Nemeton from him and Peter when they were younger. It's a dead end."

Stiles swears on the line.  _"Alright well then get to Deaton's. He saved me from the FBI douche and we're brainstorming here. I'll call Avery to-"_

"I'm here." Avery blurts. "Allison and Isaac are waiting for us downstairs. We'll meet you there."

" _Oh. Okay. Hurry up then. We're kind of on a time crunch."_

Lydia scoffs but Avery cuts her off. "Okay, we're on our way."

Lydia hangs up her phone and pockets it while Avery looks to Derek. "Keep me updated, yeah? Let me know what you decide to do about Cora."

Derek quickly nods and straight away, Avery and Lydia are hurrying for the exit.

..

..

Once at Deaton's Vet Clinic, Dr. Deaton ushers Avery, Allison, Lydia, and Isaac into the back room where Stiles is already waiting for them. Allison and Lydia start to immediately pace around the room while Isaac moves to lean against the back wall. Stiles is leaning over the metal table when Avery walks up to him, offering him a feeble smile before leaning next to him and bumping shoulders with him. She had a feeling that if she were to bring up his panic attack out of the blue, he'd stammer and get flustered and they'd lose time for the real reason of showing up there.

So for now, she's keeping quiet. "Where are we headed?" She asks instead.

"I'm not exactly sure." Stiles shrugs. "It has to be on a telluric current or maybe even at the axis of two." He tells them. Deaton walks further into the room, lips pursed in contemplation. "Or where they all intersect. I- I just know it's where Derek took Paige to die."

"My dad and Gerard where there once." Allison tells the room. "But Gerard said it was years ago and he couldn't remember where it was. And my Dad obviously isn't here to tell us now."

"Yeah. Ours either." Avery mumbles sadly.

It's the first time that any of their friends have heard any type of emotion about the situation come from Avery so Isaac and Allison are immediately there to comfort her. Isaac stands behind her, hands on her shoulder while Allison comes in to box her in with Stiles. Allison and Stiles both shoulder Avery, reaching a hand in to rub at her arms or anything to show a bit of comfort for her.

"So how do we find this place?" Isaac voices- Stiles and Avery immediately looking up to Deaton.

The Doctor is turned facing the other way but his profile is easily seen by their eyes. As Deaton stares off, he sighs. "There might be a way but it's dangerous." He says before looking back at them. "We're going to need Scott."

Stiles groans while Avery eagerly straightens herself up. "I'm on it." She says as she pulls out her phone. "What's the plan, Doc?"

As Doctor Deaton relays part of his plan to them, Avery starts texting away.  _'We have lead to find the whereabouts to the Nemeton but you're needed. Is there somewhere you can meet us?'_

And almost immediately, Scott replies with a  _'Yes.'_

..

..

The location Scott chooses is just on the outskirts of the Beacon Hills Preserve. When Avery gave Deaton the news that Scott was able to break away from the alphas for a bit, he had Isaac, Allison, and Lydia clean out the room. After Isaac dragged in three metal tubs into the room, Deaton then asked him, Lydia, and Allison to go purchase as many bags of ice they could fit into Allison's car while he, Stiles, and Avery went to go retrieve Scott.

By the time they get to the Preserve, Scott has yet to show up. Avery had hopped into the back of Stiles jeep while Deaton sat up front with her brother. As the climbed out of the jeep, Avery hopped up on the hood while Deaton and Stiles leaned against said hood with their arms crossed over their chests.

They didn't have to wait too long for Scott to show.

"How'd you guys find out?" Is the first thing from his mouth.

"Lydia." Stiles answers him. "You?"

"Morrell." He sighs. "None of the other alpha know where it is either."

"So if this works, you gonna tell them?" Avery asks.

Scott opens his mouth but shuts it a second later as he thinks about it. "I can't stop Jennifer without them." He finally says.

"Dude, what the fu-"

"How about we concentrate on finding your parents first." Deaton cuts through Avery's angry words.

Scott nods. "What's the plan?"

"Essentially," Deaton sighs. "-you, Allison, and Stiles need to be surrogate sacrifices for your parents."

Scott's eyes widen as he looks to Stiles. "We die for them?"

"But the Doc brings you back." Avery answers for him with a nod before her eyebrows furrow and she stares at the back of Deaton's head. "You can- you can bring them back, right?"

"You remember the part where I said this was dangerous?" Deaton calls over his shoulder before looking forward to Scott. "If it goes right, the three of you will be dead for a few seconds but there's something else you need to think about. This is a dangerous thing for more reasons than one. You'll be giving power back to the Nemeton. A place that hasn't had power for a long time. This kind of power is like a magnet, it attracts the supernatural. The kind of things that a family like the Argents can fill the pages of a Beastiary with. It will draw them here.. like a beacon."

"That doesn't sound any worse than anything we've already seen." Stiles mumbles.

"You'd be surprised at what you have yet to see." Deaton tells him.

Avery nods along as vampires immediately pop in her mind. "Amen." She agrees with him.

Scott and Stiles take a moment to think it over before Scott looks at Deaton. "Is that it?"

"No." Deaton shakes his head and Avery perks up. Deaton hadn't mentioned anything else besides needing the three teens as surrogate sacrifices. "It'll also have an effect on the three of you. You won't be able to see it but you'll be able to feel it everyday for the rest of your lives. It'll be kind of a- a darkness around your heart. And permanent like a scar."

"Like a tattoo." Scott breathes out.

Silence reigns and the only noise is that of crickets chirping in the night. They let all of it sink in before Scott finally agrees and they all climb into the jeep. Once situated inside and they're on the road, Avery gets a text from Derek. Dread immediately settles in and Scott curiously glances at her but she forces a smile to attempt to throw him off. It doesn't work right away but when he goes back to looking out his own window, she quickly reads the text.

_'Cora's getting worse. I'm healing her tonight. There's no need to worry though. I have plan.'_

Avery mentally scoffs.  _'What type of plan? Please tell me it's a good one because I'm about to watch my brother and friends ritually sacrifice themselves all to fucking find the nemeton.'_

_'On the night of the lunar eclipse, werewolves don't get stronger.'_ She reads Derek's text.  _'We lose our power. It'll be an even playing field for us all. And what do you mean they're sacrificing themselves? Are you crazy?"_

_'Goodbye, Derek.'_ Avery texts him back with a smile.  _'If all goes well, we'll meet up soon and you can lecture their idiotic decisions later. Remember, if it works, tell me! If you don't contact me, I'll believe you're dead.'_

Derek sends back his affirmative, and for once, Avery prays that things go according to plan. She actually  _prays._

_.._

_.._

As they get back to Deaton's clinic and gather in the back room, Deaton tells Scott, Allison, and Stiles that they're going to need something personal from their parents. It needs to be any item that is of great importance to them or once was.

While the three of them think of what it is they can go retrieve and leave to go get them, Deaton puts Avery, Lydia, and Isaac to work. He has them fill each tub with water before he goes around dropping handfuls of mistletoe into each tub. Once that's finished, he then has them empty bag after bag into each tub.

When the last bags are being emptied, the trio of teens return.

"Alright, what did you bring?" Deaton asks them.

Scott, Allison, and Stiles all look at each other before Stiles steps forward. "Um, I got my Dad's badge." He says as he lifts it up before running his fingers over it. "Jennifer kind of crushed it in her hand so I tried hammering it out a bit. It still doesn't look great."

"It doesn't have to look good if it has meaning." Deaton says. Stiles looks to be fighting tears so Avery quickly rushes to his side and links arms with him to show him some support. He offers a feeble grin before sniffing and looking towards Allison and Scott.

"Is that an actual silver bullet?" Isaac voices next and everyone looks to see Allison holding said bullet between her fingers.

"My Dad made it as kind of, uh, a ceremonial thing. When one of us finishes learning all the skills to be a Hunter, you forge a silver bullet as a testament to the Code." Allison fills them in.

"Scott?" Deaton calls on him last when Scott doesn't seem to wanna come forward.

Scott looks up at his friends before looking down at his hand and opening his fist where a feminine wrist watch sits. "My Dad got my Mom this watch when she first got hired at the Hospital. She used to say it was the only thing in her marriage that ever worked."

"Okay." Deaton calls out and gestures to the tubs. "The three of you will get in and each of us will hold you down until you're essentially.. well.. dead. But it's not just someone to hold you under, it needs to be someone who can pull you back. Someone that has a strong connection to you. A kind of emotional tether." Everyone looks around, Avery grinning up at her brother to let him know she's got him. Allison catches Lydia's gaze and Lydia starts walking towards her only to have Deaton stop her. "Lydia, you go with Stiles." Everyone's head snaps in the twin's direction as Avery gapes.

"Are you sure?" Allison asks the question that everyone is thinking.

Deaton nods. "Positive. While Avery and Stiles have a blood link, they haven't known each other as long as Lydia and Stiles. Avery might be his sister but she doesn't have the connection that Lydia and Stiles have." No-one argues against Deaton so while Stiles and Lydia move towards a tub- the rest of the group look around awkwardly at one another. "Avery, you go with Allison." The two girls share a grim smile while they head to one of the tubs and Scott's left with Isaac. "Isaac, I take it you can hold Scott down but if he struggles too much, I can be there to step in with you."

There's an eerie silence as Allison, Stiles, and Scott start to strip- whether it's the top layering of clothes in Allison's case or shoes and jackets and shirts in the boys' case. One by one, after getting a reassuring squeeze or hug from their so called executioner- Allison, Stiles, and Scott step into the tubs. The cold temperature of the water has them immediately gasping out loud at the contact but they each push past their limit and drag their other leg in while slowly sinking into a sitting position.

Each teen is sitting with their backs against the tub as their teeth chatter and Deaton moves around them for last minute preparations. As Avery listens to her brother harshly breathe, she can't help but feel sick.

She's about to kill someone who's become like a sister to her. A girl who she first distrusted because she came from a family of Hunters but grew to love as the days passed. And right next to her friend, she was about to watch her best girl friend put her own twin under while her boyfriend put Scott under as well. Her brother and her friends were about to be surrogate sacrifices and she had a front row view of it all.

Tears immediately gather in her eyes as she hears her brother speak to Scott. "By the way, uh, if I don't make it back and you do- you should probably know something." She wants to scream at him that he will come back, he  _better_ but she doesn't want to cause a scene. So instead, she decides to be nosy and listen to her brother tell Scott whatever it is he needs to know. "Your Dad's in town."

Scott looks shocked as he finally gasps out but whether it's from the cold or his Dad being there, Avery has no idea. She has a feeling it's a mixture of both though the freezing water is probably higher up on the list.

Scott, Stiles, and Allison all share looks with each other the longer they sit there. The moment Deaton starts rolling up his sleeves and steps up to the end of Scott's tub- Isaac, Avery, and Lydia take their place. When Deaton nods, they each place their hands on the shoulders of Allison, Stiles, and Scott- and with the second nod, they start to slowly push them down.

Allison, Stiles, and Scott start harshly breathing as to catch what air they can before they're fully submerged. Each grip their bullet, badge, and watch tightly in hand and go under without a fight. Avery and Lydia are fighting back tears as they catch each other's gaze and when Avery looks back down at Allison, she sees her friend peacefully shutting her eyes. It's enough to completely break her heart and she knows that if she looks over at Lydia and down to her brother- she'll completely lose it.

So instead of risking the chance at messing the plan up, Avery closes her eyes and steels her arms when she can feel Allison's body trying to resurface for air.

* * *

**So a couple of people have asked to make this a love triangle between Isaac-Avery-Derek or Isaac-Avery-Scott. I'm sorry to say that _that_ won't happen. Ever since I started writing this, I knew I wanted her to be an interest for Isaac. But don't get too happy. While she is with Isaac, her romance is not the main point to this fic. It's about family. Yes there will be Isaac/Avery moments but in the end- it'll focus on Avery with Stiles and John- her family.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, I was going to write a filler chapter of the time that the trio was under water but I couldn't come up with at least 3k words for it so I skimmed over the hours and added it to this chapter. I hope you don't mind.
> 
> P.S- Sorry for the upcoming lame excuse of a panic attack.

 

**Lunar Ellipse**

"Two hours. It's been two  _freakin'_  hours, Alan! You said they'd be under for only a few seconds." Avery angrily rants as she paces back and forth in front of the tubs.

"I'm sorry." He tells her, his face showing very little emotion from his standing point in the doorway. "But they knew the consequences. You all knew the consequences."

"Yeah and besides," Lydia moves forward to comfort her clearly distraught friend. "They're still alive." She says as she points out the ripples of water in each tub from where some part of their body twitches in their unconscious state. "It's just taking longer than we expected."

A snort from the side of the room catches them off guard and when they look for the source, they see Isaac hiding a grin. "Are you seriously laughing at a time like this?" Lydia narrows her eyes dangerously at him.

"I'm sorry." Isaac apologizes with a smothered grin. "But it's just the way she talks." He says as he looks at Avery. "I mean, it's not like we haven't heard you curse before so it's kind of childish and cute when you say  _freakin'_  instead of  _fu-_ "

"I swear to God." Avery glares at him. "Laugh one more time and I'm going to shove my foot so far up your a-"

"Okay, okay." Lydia quickly jumps in before Avery can finish that sentence.

Isaac's lips twitch in amusement but Avery doesn't act out on her threat. Instead, she sighs and completely relaxes when Isaac moves to stand next to her and wraps her up in a hug.

..

..

Around the ninth hour, Lydia is already planning in her mind a trip to the nail salon when everything is done and over with. With all the worry that she and Avery have been doing, their nails seriously paid the price.

It's also around this time that Lydia notices how Avery keeps checking her phone only to sigh and put it away. Isaac sees it too but he only shrugs when Lydia practically questions him with her eyes about what's going on.

Around the third time Aver checks her phone, Isaac senses the change in his girlfriend's mood and finally asks what the problem is. Deaton has just walked back into the room when he caught Isaac's questioning and when he turns to her because he can sense the tension and nerves practically rolling off of her as well, Avery finally cracks and tells them Derek went through with his plan to save Cora.

Isaac softly curses and Lydia goes tense when she can sense the near panic in the wolf. "What did this plan entail?"

Avery bites the bottom corner of her lip to keep from saying anything but Isaac goes on to tell them anyway. He goes on to explain about Derek finding out he can save Cora by siphoning the pain from her since he's an alpha but that by tapping into his power like that- he would be turned back into a beta.

And that's only if he survived the process.

Deaton looks wary and Lydia looks frightened because Derek becoming a beta at a time like this was really not the brightest idea but Avery then quickly fills them in about how the lunar eclipse was Derek's moment to shine. With all the werewolves going powerless, Derek actually had a fighting chance.

Lydia still looks worried but at Deaton's thoughtful gaze, Avery relaxes just the slightest with hope that Derek might actually have had a great idea.

"Okay," Lydia finally mumbles. "-but if you knew all this time Derek was going through with this plan, why are you only freaking out now?"

"Because!" Avery flails. "I told him to text me when he was done so I know he didn't die and it's been hours, Lydia. Hours! The process shouldn't have taken this long."

"I'm sure he's fine." Lydia tries to assure her friend but Avery shakes her head in denial.

In the midst of denying that Derek isn't fine, her phone blares from her back pocket and Avery is immediately clawing it out. When she sees the name on her phone, she breaks out a brilliant smile as she accepts it. "Derek?! Thank fuck." She breathes in relief. "What did I tell you-"

" _Avery?"_

Avery freezes mid-sentence, her eyes going wide as Isaac's head whips in her direction, the voice on the phone catching the both of them off guard. "Cora? You're alive?!"

" _Yeah."_  She chuckles.  _"I'm feeling great, actually, but Derek is sort of drained at the moment and still unconscious."_

Avery's throat nearly closes up but she manages to squeak out, "Is he going to be okay?"

Though Isaac left on not so great terms with him, he can see how greatly affected Avery is so he manages to walk up to her and lay an arm around her shoulders, and Deaton perks up at the mention of Derek's stability.  _"He should be. I'm just letting him rest right now before we try to wake him."_ She answers.  _"I, uh, decided to go through his phone and found your text messages so I figured you'd want an update."_

"Yeah." Avery nods though Cora can't see her. "Thank you. I was starting to freak out over here so yeah, that helps."

Cora chuckles once more before moving on.  _"How are things on your end?"_

Avery's breath hitches and Isaac squeezes her tighter to his side- he only being able to relax when Avery switches the phone to her other hand and wraps her arm around his waist. "It could be going better." She sighs before quickly explaining the sacrifice that Allison, Stiles, and Scott made as well as the consequence. "What was supposed to be a few seconds ended up being hours. They're still.. under." She finishes.

Cora is speechless for a few seconds.  _"Fuck."_

"Yep. Exactly my thoughts."

" _Well, there's nothing we can do now so keep me updated?"_

"Of course." Avery immediately accepts. "Punch your brother for me when he wakes?"

Cora laughs.  _"Goodbye, Avery."_

After Avery hangs up with the she-wolf, she pockets her phone before fully embracing Isaac's comfort and wraps her arms completely around him before shoving her face in his chest.

"See." Isaac mumbles near her temple. "Lydia was right. He's going to be fine."

Upon hearing Isaac's words, Lydia flashes him a grin and Deaton goes back to picking up around his Clinic.

..

..

At the twelfth hour, Deaton brings in a cot for the girls to take turns laying down and getting some rest. Isaac quickly sets it up for them and when he's finished, both Avery and Lydia eye the cot critically. There's too much going on at the moment that sleep won't come to anyone and before anyone can settle down on the cot, Deaton comes back into the room bringing snack foods with him.

He tells them to eat a little something if none of them are going to leave their friend's side and passes out granola bars, bottles of water, and cups of pudding. The three teens give their mumbled thanks as Deaton leaves the room once more before all three decide to sit on the cot side-by-side with Isaac in the middle. They easily devour the snacks that were given to them, the only seconds available being water that Deaton had kept plenty stocked of.

..

..

As the minutes drag into more hours, Avery starts losing her composure.

Lydia had finally nodded off after eating her snack and used Isaac's shoulder as a pillow while Avery did the same only she hadn't fallen asleep. Her eyes stayed focused on the three tubs in front of them and wondered just when it was they were going to wake up-  _if_ they were going to wake up.

As scenario after scenario popped into her mind- scenarios varying from one of three not waking up to none of them waking up to eventually everyone dying and Jennifer getting away before she had a chance to call in reinforcements- her heartbeat started to rise. When her mind drifted back to that of both Stiles and her Dad dying, she couldn't help her eyes tearing up or the fact that a lump formed in her throat at the idea of being alone without any blood-related family.

As the tears finally fall and she chokes back a sob, Isaac immediately jolts awake. "What's going on? What happened?"

Avery's breathing goes ragged as she turns her watery gaze towards Isaac and Lydia, who's now awake, and both teens are immediately alert when they see Avery's expression. "W-what if they don't wake up?" She questions. "What if Deaton was wrong about their tethers- what if.."

"Avery." Isaac cuts her off as he angles himself toward her, bringing his hands to gently grip her upper arms. "It's fine. Deaton is never wrong-"

"It's been  _hours_ , Isaac!" Avery suddenly wails as she pushes herself away from him. "Tell me again how he's never wrong. Tell me again that it's going to be fine. Tell me-" She cuts off and pants harshly before moving to stand. "Tell me-" She repeats but cuts off again as her chest tightens and the edges of her vision go blurry. "Te-  _Isaac?_ " She gasps. "I- I can't bre-"

"She's having a panic attack." Lydia blurts as she and Isaac immediately stand.

"I don't- I don't get those." Avery rasps as she clutches to Isaac's arm as a lifeline, her eyes wide and teary as she tries to catch her breath. "I don't get-"

"Well you're getting one right now." Lydia says as she tries to think of a way to help her. "You need to slow your breathing down or it's going to get worse. Slow down your breathing, Av-"

"I can't. I can't." She pants, fingers digging into Isaac's arm as she holds on to him. "Make it- make it stop."

"Deaton!" Isaac suddenly hollers and waits until the Doctor is rushing into the room. "What do we do. I don't know what to-"

"Kiss her!" Lydia blurts, eyes going wide that she hadn't thought of it before. Avery, Isaac, and Dr. Deaton look at Lydia as if she's lost her mind. "No, trust me." She tells him. "Kiss her! Stiles had a panic attack at school and when we couldn't stop it, I kissed him. It- it has something to do with holding your breath."

"I'm not kissing her." Isaac shakes his head. "She can't- we can't-.. there's an issue with-"

"Oh, screw it! I'll kiss her." Lydia snaps at him, pushing Isaac aside before grasping Avery's face in her hands and catching her lips in a kiss.

Avery goes wide-eyed as her and Lydia's lips lock perfectly- her eyes darting back and forth between Lydia who has her eyes closed and Isaac who's gaping at the scene. There's nothing romantic about the kiss, just two pairs of lips locked together and after a good ten seconds, Lydia pulls back.

"What.. the hell." Avery finally manages to say without breathing raggedly, though she was now a bit breathless.

"You needed to calm down." Lydia shrugs as if it were no big deal. "Making you hold your breath was the only way I knew how to stop the panic attack."

"Yeah but," Avery frowns when she notices Isaac still gaping and Deaton staring at her as if she were about to have another panic attack. "-I don't get panic attacks. I've never had one before."

"Well, whatever you were thinking triggered it. What were you thinking?"

Avery's gaze darts back and forth between all three occupants in the room. Her gaze lingers on Deaton before he nods and takes his leave out of the room. Once gone, she sighs and starts to move back towards the cot.

Isaac is still speechless at Avery's sudden attack and the kiss between his girlfriend and friend that when he feels a tug on his hand, he realizes Avery has slipped her hand into his without him even noticing. When he sees the worry flash in her eyes, he gives her a brief grin as he slides his fingers between her own and squeezes to assure her he's not mad or anything.

He then drags her down onto the cot, sitting once more in the middle as Lydia slowly sits on the other side of him.

"They're going to wake up, Avery, you just have to believe it." Lydia suddenly voices. "We're the ones keeping them tethered to this plane so don't freak out now." She quickly reprimands her friend. "And I know this sounds cheesy but you just have to believe."

Avery blinks rapidly as big fat tears roll down her cheek, her gaze set on the red-head on the other side of Isaac. Lydia keeps her gaze stern, not wavering in the slightest at her friend's sudden breakdown and mentally cheers when Avery suddenly snaps back to herself and starts to nod.

"Y-you're right. I need to believe they'll wake up." She mutters as she keeps nodding. "We all need to believe they'll wake up."

Isaac breathes a sigh of relief at hearing her say that, his mind reeling at the whiplash of emotions she just displayed. He hears her heartbeat slow, letting his grip on her hand go and pulls her to his chest- hugging her while setting his cheek atop her head. Slowly but surely, Avery wraps her arms around him, burying her face in the crook of his neck and breathing shakily as she tries to keep herself together. "There, there. You're fine." He mumbles into her hair. "It's all going to turn out fine."

She nods into his neck, hugging him tightly and using the solidity of Isaac and Lydia's presence to keep herself calm and hopeful. Isaac moves to lean back against the wall, pulling Avery into his lap as he works on keeping her calm and letting Lydia lean back on his shoulder as they sit and wait.

Avery works on controlling her breathing as she lets her eyelids shut and listens in to Isaac's breathing to keep hers matched to his. A small thud sounds from one of the tubs and Avery's eyes immediately snap open. She doesn't move or cause any noise in case it was just a trick of her imagination but the second she feels Isaac tense beneath her, she pulls back from the cuddled embrace and sees his eyes are wide and staring at the tubs. Another thud sounds and this one is loud enough to catch Lydia's attention as well. All three teens turn to stare at the tubs but all they see is the peaceful expressions of Allison, Stiles, and Scott's faces as they are barely kept afloat.

When the sounds cease- Avery, Lydia, and Isaac start to slump back against the wall. Before they even have the chance to get comfortable, Allison gasps awake and shoots upward with her eyes wide open. Two seconds later, Stiles follows suit and finally Scott.

As they all continue to gasp for breath and splash around- Avery, Lydia, and Isaac shoot to their feet as their friends attempt to stand while Deaton runs into the room with a shocked expression.

"I saw it. I know where it is." Scott shouts as he pulls himself out of the tub.

"We passed it. There was this stump-" Stiles says as he too climbs out from his tub. "-this huge tree, well it's not huge anymore, it was cut down but it's still big though. Very big."

"It was the night we were looking for the body." Scott cuts back in as he tells what they saw before looking back to Stiles to see if he remembers what night he's talking about.

"The same night you were bit by Peter." And yeah, he clearly remembers.

"I was there, too, in the car with my Mother. We almost hit someone." Allison pants and Scott gapes.

"It was me. You almost hit me."

Now it's Allison's turn to gape as they realize they're all connected to the same night. Deaton looks intrigued as he listens to what they're saying while Avery, Isaac, and Lydia just look confused. Stiles, Scott, and Allison are all soaking wet, panting for breath, and trying to get out their story as quickly as possible.

"We can find it." Scott then says as he looks to Deaton.

Deaton's face, who usually knows how to school his features to be neutral, turns to look at the three dry teens. Each and every one of them look wary and not as hopeful as the three soaking wet teens.

Allison wraps her arms around her shaking form when she realizes their expressions. "What?"

"You guys were out a long time." Isaac finally says when no-one volunteers to answer them.

Allison, Stiles, and Scott all share a look. "How long is a long time?" Stiles sighs.

Avery catches her brother's gaze with a frown. "Sixteen hours."

"We've been in the water for sixteen hours?!" Scott looks to Deaton for confirmation.

Deaton nods. "And the full moon rises in less than four."

Scott hangs his head with a groan before finally moving away from the tub. Deaton is quick to retrieve towels for all of them and hands them out. As Scott and Stiles attempt to warm themselves up, Avery and Lydia move to sit on either side of Allison on one of the side metal tables. They sit as close as they can, offering up any body heat so Allison can leech it from them through the towel and their clothes.

Isaac chooses to lean against the table they're sitting on, his hip setting against Avery's knee. "So what's the plan now?"

"I'm not sure." Scott shrugs. "But I do know I have to go back to the alphas."

"No, dude, you are not going back with them." Stiles cuts in.

"I made a deal with Deucalion." Scott states, his gaze set on the floor.

Stiles groans and looks out to the remaining room's occupants. "Does anyone else think that sounds a lot like a deal with the devil?"

Isaac shrugs. "What does it matter anyway?"

"Because," Scott says. "-I still don't think we can beat Jennifer without their help."

Allison scoffs and looks to Deaton. "He trusts you more than anyone else. Tell him he's wrong."

"I'm not so sure he is." Deaton says, hands on his hips as his gaze darts back and forth between Allison and Scott. "Circumstances like this sometimes require that you align yourself with people you normally consider enemies."

"So we're going to trust him?" Avery finally sighs. She knows this isn't going to end well. Someone was going to die but she'd be damned if it was anyone in her close circle of friends.

"The guy who calls himself Death-" Isaac picks up for Avery. "-Destroyer of Worlds. We're gonna trust that guy?"

"I wouldn't trust him." Deaton elaborates. "No.. but you could use him to your advantage." And now, he's piqued everyone's interest. "Deucalion may be the enemy but he could also be the bait."

The room goes quiet after that revelation, each and every one of them contemplating different scenarios in which Deucalion would be bait. In the midst of the brainstorming, Avery's phone buzzes from within her pocket. Remembering that Cora was to keep her updated, she quickly tears her phone from her pocket and opens the text message that was sitting there.

_'Derek said you're all idiots and he hopes you all live so he can kill you himself.'_

Avery barks a laugh, quickly typing back a reply to tell them that she hopes he recovers fast and that they're all awake on her end now. When she looks up from her phone, she finds everyone staring at her and waiting for an explanation. When she can't find a way out, she tells them that Derek's finally awake. And when she's met with three curious and worried faces of Allison, Stiles, and Scott- she goes on to explain on how Derek isn't an alpha anymore. That he sacrificed his alpha power to save Cora.

"But now he's a sitting duck!" Stiles nearly flails. "What the hell was he thinking?!"

"What any big brother would be thinking." Avery narrows her eyes on Stiles, her voice going low. "Cora was dying so of course he'd do anything to save her even if it included getting himself killed. We're all just lucky he still has a plan."

"What plan?" Scott asks. "With Derek having the power of a beta, Kali's going to tear him apart."

"Not necessarily." Deaton pipes up with one of his secretive grins. When Scott's head snaps in his direction, Deaton looks back to Avery. "Care to fill them in?"

"Avery?" Stiles turns back to his sister. "What aren't you telling us?"

"Well," Avery bites the bottom corner of her lip to keep them in suspense just a little bit longer. "I was informed that on the night of a lunar eclipse, werewolves don't become  _super wolf,_ they become human." Stiles and Scott both gape and Avery nods with a grin. "So yeah, he's planning to stall her long enough to take her on when they're on an even playing field."

The boys don't even get a chance to ask for more information when the bell from above the front door jingles. Avery, Scott, Stiles, Isaac, and Deaton straighten up at the sound but only Deaton goes to investigate which catches Allison and Lydia's attention when they realize how tense everyone turned.

" _I'm looking for Lydia."_ They hear a familiar voice state.

Avery's eyes go wide as they catch her friend's, Lydia gulping and slowly moving towards the doorway with Avery at her heels along with Scott.

"What do you want?" She asks when she comes face to face with Ethan.

He remains quiet for a few seconds. "I need your help." He finally says, his gaze locked on with hers.

"With what?" Stiles demands as he pushes himself to stand in front of both girls.

"Stopping my brother and Kali-" He tells them to which everyone is pretty much speechless. This was something they did not see coming. Hoping for, yes, but they weren't counting on it. "-from killing Derek."

Again, the room is struck speechless. Well, at least until Avery awkwardly breaks it. "Plot twist." She sing-songs which earns her a glare from her brother. "What? You were thinking it." She huffs. When she looks back to Ethan, she catches the twitch of his lips as he hides his grin. "Okay, so what's the plan?"

"Whoa, wait, what?!" Stiles yelps. "You're just going to jump right on the bandwagon with him? How do you know this isn't part of their plan?"

"Because it isn't." Avery says as she takes in Ethan's facial expression. "He wants this to stop as much as we do."

"If it helps any, his heart didn't skip when he was talking about stopping Aiden and Kali." Scott supplied. "He's telling the truth."

Stiles groans but gives in. "Fine. What's the plan?"

"We need to get Derek and whoever else out of town." Ethan tells them. Avery is ready to protest but Ethan cuts her off. "We all know about the lunar eclipse and what it does. Kali isn't going to sit around and wait until it's an even playing field. She's out for blood so the sooner we can convince Derek to leave, the sooner we can setup and get ready to stall to earn him some more time to get away."

"You're right." Avery breathes. "We need a plan.. a plan.." She mumbles as she wracks her brain for anything. No-one is saying anything or even throwing out ideas so she says the first thing that pops into her mind. "Okay, Lydia, you and I are going to go with Ethan. We need to convince Derek and possibly Cora that they need to leave." Lydia nods and starts moving towards the alpha as Avery turns to Stiles. "You and Deaton work the maps. Try and pinpoint exactly where the Nemeton is and then call Scott or Isaac."

"Us?" Scott's brow furrow in confusion.

"Yeah. You." Avery grins. "You, Isaac, and Allison are heading to her place. You have a lock down on your Mom's scent, right?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Good. Then Isaac can sniff something out of Mr. Argent's and when Stiles calls about the location of the Nemeton, you guys head there so you can sniff out their scents in case they're close by."

"Okay but why are you going with them and not with us?" Isaac asks.

"Because," Avery grins at him. "-as much as I sort of trust Ethan, I'm not letting Lydia go alone."

The group goes quiet for a moment before Scott 'okays' the entire plan. Lydia is already standing by Ethan who are just waiting on Avery when Deaton turns to move back into the back room with Scott on his tail. When Avery lingers a bit and glances at her brother and then at Isaac- Isaac takes the hint to leave the siblings alone.

When Stiles notices that they're all heading back into the back room, he turns to go as well but Avery catches his wrist. "Wait." She murmurs.

Stiles nearly does a double-take because his sister has tears in her eyes. She actually has tears in her eyes and she has no injury that would warrant the tears. "Hey, what's wr-  _oomph!_ " He grunts when Avery launches herself at him.

She gets her arms wrapped around his shoulder area, squeezing tightly as she hooks her chin over his shoulder. "I thought I had lost you." She mutters, her voice cracking just the slightest. "You weren't waking up and I kind of lost it earlier. I just- I just need to hug you. I need the assurance that you're actually here."

"Hey, hey.. I'm right here." Stiles tells her, eyes wide as he catches Lydia's shocked gaze and brings his arms around his sister's small frame to squeeze her back. "You didn't think you'd be able to get rid of me that easy, did you?"

"I had a panic attack, you doofus. That's how bad I got when none of you were waking up."

"What?! You get those, too? How did you-"

"Let's just say we now have something in common." Avery chuckles against his shoulder. "We can now both say that we've kissed Lydia Martin." Stiles reels back from her, his hands gripping her upper arms gently as she grins sheepishly at him. "Isaac wouldn't do it because of reasons so Lydia took charge."

Stiles just gapes as his eyes dart back and forth between both females and now that it seems the brother-sister moment is over, Isaac makes his way over to them and claps Stiles on the shoulder. "I was speechless, too." He grins. "If I had any functioning ability, I'd have snapped a picture to show you."

And that-  _that_  snaps Stiles out of his shocked state. "That's my sister." He grimaces.

"And that's my girlfriend but you don't see me complaining."

"Isaac!" Avery scowls at him but cracks and ends up grinning. "Shutup."

"Avery, come on." Lydia finally calls out.

Avery catches her gaze with a nod, moving to hug her brother before she leaves him. "Remember, call Isaac or Scott when you figure out the location." Stiles nods before moving out of the hug and then she moves to hug Isaac. "Be careful, please, and keep me updated."

"I will." He tells her. "You be careful. They're alphas, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah." She huffs. "Just don't die." And before he could protest or tell her the same, Avery stands up on her tiptoes and presses a kiss to his lips.

All their kisses have been rushed and/or chaste so in case this is the last time she sees him, she makes it count. She slowly forces herself to part her lips as to not freak herself out and slowly lets her tongue peek out to taste his bottom lip. Forgetting that there's an audience, Isaac's arms snake around her waist to bring her closer as he gladly accepts the deepened kiss and when Avery feels him beginning to taste her.. she doesn't freeze or tense up.

She doesn't take a moment to figure out why she's not freaking out at the not-so-simple kiss and just melts against him. The duo actually get a bit carried away with gentle nips and explorations of each other's mouths that it isn't until a throat clears that they jump apart.

Isaac and Avery are both wide-eyed, cheeks flushed red and lips kissed swollen. Stiles grimaces at the display he just witnessed before rolling his eyes and heading to the back room when a giggle sounds.

Whirling around to face the sound, Avery is met with a smiling Lydia and Ethan who's looking anywhere but at her. "Not one word, Martin." Avery blurts as she narrows her eyes at said girl.

Lydia holds her hands up in mock surrender but it's Ethan who speaks. "Now can we go?"

Isaac snorts but blushes when Avery rounds on him. Instead of saying anything, she quickly leans up and pecks his lips before turning and jogging towards Lydia and Ethan who are now halfway out the door. After making a quick stop by Allison's car to retrieve her bow and arrow, Avery slings both across her back and hops on her bike while Lydia gets in the car with Ethan.

..

..

By the time they get to Derek's building, Ethan and Lydia are wary and just following Avery's lead. As they take the elevator up, Avery is the only one who seems to be at ease as she clicks her tongue against the roof of her mouth. When the elevator comes to a stop, Ethan and Lydia once again just follow Avery's lead.

Acting like she pretty much belongs there, Avery slides open the loft door with ease and steps in with a smirk. "Alright, Hales. You got company." She yells into the seemingly empty place.

Cora is the first to show, eyes hardening when she sees Ethan standing in the group. Peter comes in next, rolling his eyes when he sees who's there but doesn't leave his niece's side and Derek's appearance is known when he growls.

"What's he doing here?"

"He's come to help. To give you a head start on getting the hell out of here." Avery tells them. "Ethan is trying to stop the others from killing you."

Being as she's the only one comfortable enough to walk around the wolves, Avery walks down the steps and further into the loft. Cora watches her with a smothered grin- the human who seems to be so at ease with these supernatural beings around her that are just waiting to tear each other's throats out.

"We know about the lunar eclipse." Ethan finally says, catching everyone's attention as Derek positions himself in front of his family and crosses his arms over his chest. "So don't think Kali's going to sit around waiting for it to level the playing field. She's coming. My brother's coming with her."

"Good enough for me." Peter nods. "Derek?"

"You want me to run?" He asks, his gaze not meeting anyone else.

"No." Peter sasses. "I want you to stay and get slaughtered by an alpha with a psychotic foot fetish." Avery snorts at Peter's words before biting her lip when Peter's voice gets louder. "Of course I want you to run. Sprint! Gallop! Leap your way the hell out of this town."

"If you want to fight and die for something," Cora then says. "-that's fine with me but do it for something meaningful."

"How do you know I'm going to lose?" Derek asks.

"We don't." Peter drawls. "But I bet she has an idea." He says as he looks towards Lydia. When Lydia realizes he's talking about her, Avery can see the way her friend tenses and even gulps when Peter starts to walk towards her. "Don't you, Lydia?"

"I don't know anything." She answers him.

When Peter takes a few more steps, Avery intervenes. "That's enough, Peter. Back off." Lydia gulps yet again and Ethan looks ready to intervene as well if the occasion calls for it.

Peter stops and turns to look at Avery with a grin. "Relax." When he turns back to Lydia, said female tenses once more. "You feel something, don't you?"

Lydia lost eye contact with Peter, her eyes darting down as she thought about it. "What do you feel?" Derek asks her, taking charge of the situation now that someone was bound to know what they were talking about.

Lydia keeps her gaze down. "I feel like.." She murmurs softly. "-I'm standing in a graveyard."

Avery and Cora immediately tense, both girls turning to Derek when they see his shoulders slump. Peter turns to his nephew, the two of them having some sort of eye communication when Peter suddenly sprints to the back room and up the metal staircase.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and trust your instincts." Derek says to Lydia before turning to Avery and Cora. "But if I go, you go with me." He tells his little sister.

Cora doesn't even fight him on it, instead she chooses to run out of the room and wherever it was that Peter disappeared. Derek then looks to Avery and his features soften a little. "Hey, I'm good." Avery smiles at him. "When this is all over, I'll give you a call so you can get your ass back to town."

He looks like he wants to say something but the moment his mouth opens, Peter reappears with two duffel bags. "I threw in some necessities. Cora's packing now."

Derek nods and when he looks back to Avery, she waves him off. "Go. I need to help them stall the others here."

Derek opens his mouth yet again to tell her something but Cora leaps from the staircase with her own duffel bag of goodies. Sighing mostly to himself, Derek nods towards the door for Peter and Cora to head to. When he catches Avery's gaze once more, he mutters out a quick, "Don't die." before he too is out the door leaving Avery, Lydia, and Ethan in his place of home.

Avery keeps herself in check as she watches the Hales depart before Ethan and Lydia move further into the room so that their backs are to the windows and they can see if anyone enters through the door.

No-one says anything as they stand around and Avery chooses to pace back and forth just to pass time. Lydia just stares at her friend pace while Ethan sets his gaze on the door with his arms crossed over his chest as he waits.

The vibration of her phone makes Avery giggle before she reaches into her pocket to see what's going on now.  _'FBI was waiting inside Allison's home. We're being questioned right now but I made up the excuse of coming to the bathroom. Tell your brother not to freak if he can't get ahold of us.'_

"Crap." Avery mutters as she forwarded Isaac's message to Stiles.

"What? What happened now?" Lydia says as she takes a step towards her friend.

"N-nothing." Avery shakes her head and another text from Isaac comes in. "The FBI cornered Scott, Isa-  _Oh._ " She laughs. "Nevermind. Allison set off a smoke bomb and they got away. Damn, go Alli." Avery grins as she texted back Stiles to forget about what she forwarded to him.

Lydia sighs in relief as they went back to waiting but Avery caught the way Ethan was too focused on the door. The way he tilted his head to the side, as if he were straining his hearing, let her know that someone was coming. Avery immediately sobered up from her amusement, reaching for the bow at her shoulder and pulling it off. Lydia noticed Avery's movements and when Avery slid an arrow from her back, Ethan's gaze snapped in her direction and he nodded.

They were here.

The alarm in Derek's loft immediately blares and since it's not a bother to them, the three loft's occupants let it ring out. The door then slides open, Kali swaggering in with a smirk before she walked over to the system box and kicked it off it's pillar.

"Where is he?" She snarled as Aiden walked in next, standing behind her with his face void of any emotion.

Lydia snapped her fingers, scrunching up her face in thought as she looked to Avery and then to Ethan. "I think he said he was heading out to do some shopping." She nodded along trying to get Ethan to agree with her as he hid a smirk. "Run a few errands. The usual-  _ahem_ ," Lydia clears her throat. "-werewolf afternoon."

Avery didn't bother hiding her grin as she slowly notched her arrow but kept it pointing towards the ground as Kali starting pacing back and forth in her anger. "Who do you think you're talking to?"

Lydia crossed her arms. "Someone in desperate need of a pedicure." She sassed as Kali's upper lip curled in anger. "I'd be happy to give you a referral."

Kali made a move to step forward but Avery easily leveled her arrow at her. "Watch it, dog." Avery smirks. "Don't want to lose an eye, do you?"

Kali's claws flicked out at her sides but it's the growling that catches everyone off guard- including Kali who freezes in spot before looking over her shoulder at Aiden who was growling  _at her_ in warning. "Oh really?" She asks Aiden as he continues to growl while she walks up to him. From Avery's peripheral vision, she can see Ethan tense for his brother's sake. "Did someone take their little assignment too seriously?"

At Kali's words, Aiden's gaze shoots up to Lydia. "She's not the problem." He snarls lowly as he catches Kali's gaze.

"Maybe the problem is where your loyalties lie." The alpha she-wolf says.

"Oh god." Lydia sighs softly. "Is this about to get really violent?"

Ethan and Avery share a look as they nod in unison. "Probably."

Glass from the ceiling suddenly shatters as a figure falls through making Lydia scream out in shock as Ethan grabs her and drags her back to safety. The sudden intrusion startles everyone- including Avery who drops her arrow in the process of scrambling backward and away from the danger.

The figure lands in a crouch- clad in a black leather jacket, black jeans, and black boots- with their head hanging forward. Aiden and Kali are both shocked still and then turn angry when the figure throws it's head back to get it's hair out of the way and to make it's dramatic appearance known.

"So," a feminine voice drawls once she stands to full height. "-who wants to go first?"

And it's then that Avery, Ethan, and Lydia figure out it's Jennifer who just made her entrance.

Kali snarls, her teeth lengthening into fangs before she braced herself and kicked up at Jennifer's head. Jennifer easily dodged the kick with a grin, her grin widening into a smug smirk as she continued to dodge each and every kick and swipe of Kali's clawed toenails. Finally having enough, Jennifer shoved at Kali's shoulder with her palm and sent the alpha flying back in a spin only to land harshly on the floor.

Aiden snarled next, half circling Jennifer with his red eyes and fangs. Ethan immediately stood, half transforming as he pushed Lydia to the side and out of the way. Even though Avery wasn't on good terms with Aiden, she was still worried for him just for Ethan's sake and even more so now that they had a common enemy he was about to take on.

Aiden roared as he swiped once with his claws only to have Jennifer hit him in the chest with her power and sent him flying back. Ethan growled in anger, unzipping his jacket and slipping it off as Aiden quickly sat on bended knee- ripping his shirt in half as he roared. Jennifer watched on without one ounce of worry and as soon as Aiden and Ethan connected their arms and started to morph into each other, Jennifer strutted up to them and gripped them by their throats, yelling in rage as she threw them apart from each other so they couldn't complete their morphing.

Avery gaped at the strength Jennifer was displaying and Lydia gasped in fright for Aiden and Ethan as they both hit the walls and fell down. Avery then readied herself, reaching back for another arrow when she saw Kali starting to come to and getting up to her feet. But before she can fully unsheathe an arrow, Kali has caught Jennifer's attention.

The two walk towards each other, Kali flipping in air as she tried to hit Jennifer with her clawed toes but completely misses as Jennifer easily sidesteps her. When Kali is standing on two feet again, she faces off with Jennifer who hasn't stopped smirking the entire time. They hold each other's gaze and Kali suddenly deflates a little as she stands up straighter.

"That's right, Kali." Jennifer nods, voice eerily calm. "Look at me. Look at my face." Kali pants as she continues to stare and it's then that Avery realizes that she's in some sort of trance. "Do you know what it takes to be able to look like this? To be able to look normal."

"I don't care." Kali shakes her head as she comes to.

"It takes power." Jennifer says as she squares her shoulder in Kali's direction. "Power like this."

Jennifer's hands open up at her sides, her palms facing downward as she keeps her gaze solely on Kali. Avery goes wide-eyed and mentally groans when the glass shards beneath Jennifer's feet start to rattle on the floor before floating upward in mid-air as Jennifer raises her arms at her side. Kali gulps in fear as she eyes the pieces of glass in front of her before catching Jennifer's determined expression. Thunder rumbles outside the building and the wind picks up in the loft causing everyone's hair to fly about.

"I.." Kali gasps, finding it hard to breathe. "I should have.." The rotating pieces of glass come to a stop, the most sharpest point of each shard pointing directly at Kali. "I SHOULD HAVE RIPPED YOUR HEAD OFF!" Kali shouts at Jennifer at the same time Jennifer yells while thrusting her arms out in front of her and sends the shards of glass flying at Kali.

Lydia gasps and closes her eyes but Avery watches on in shock as the pieces embed themselves all over Kali's face, neck, and torso. With her face frozen in shocked pain, Kali falls to the floor dead.

The entire room goes quiet and slowly but surely, Jennifer then sets her sight on Lydia with a malicious grin. Without a second thought, Avery reaches back with quick reflexes and pulls out an arrow, notching in on her bow and leveling the point at Jennifer. "Don't even think about." She seethes.

Jennifer turns her amused grin on Avery but before she can make a move, growling causes her to stop and look over her shoulder.

Aiden and Ethan are finally morphed as one and they take a moment to stretch a bit when Jennifer suddenly advances on them. Avery sighs in relief, lowering her bow as the twins meet Jennifer halfway. They swing out with both arms, growling as Jennifer easily ducks behind them. With her back to their back, she reaches back over her shoulder and hooks her hand around their neck while bending down- breaking the twins' neck in the process.

The resounding  _crack_  is enough to make both Avery and Lydia cringe. As they watch the morphed alpha fall lifeless to the ground with blood spilling from their mouth- tears well in both the girl's eyes.

"Noo!" Avery yells as she stumbles forward. She might not have liked Aiden but Ethan was somewhat decent.

Lydia pants out, trying her best not to break down and cry as Jennifer turns to them. "What's the line Coach likes to say? The bigger they are.." She smirks cruelly at them as the hope flees Lydia.

"You fucking bitch!" Avery shrieks in rage. Jennifer spares her a quick glance before setting her sights on Lydia again. She walks toward the red-head, grinning all the while, as Lydia scrambles backward until her back meets a pillar. "Stop right there." Avery yells this time and when Jennifer glances over her shoulder, she finds an arrow pointed directly at her. "If you take one more step, I will not hesitate to kill you."

Avery's gaze hardens on her as she steadies her grip on the bow and pulled string but it doesn't bother Jennifer in the slightest. Instead, it amuses her and she lets her amusement show as she  _tsks_ twice and turns halfway. "You should know better than to play with the big kids." Jennifer grins.

Her hand raises and forms a choking gesture in Avery's direction. The moment Jennifer squeezes her fingers closer together, Avery chokes on air and drops her bow as her hands fly up to her throat. Jennifer squeezes tighter once more and Avery's eyes bulge as she starts to claw at her throat now while gasping for air.

"Stop it! You'll kill her." Lydia pleads.

Jennifer turns to Lydia with a grin to find the red-head with tears in her eyes as her gaze darts back and forth between herself and Avery. Raising her hand higher as she keeps her gaze set on Lydia- Lydia squeaks in fear as Avery raises a bit higher so she's struggling to keep her feet touching the ground.

Avery struggles even harder to keep the tips of her toes touching the floor when her mind reels about what's happening right now. There's been two occasions in Avery's life that she's felt fear for her life- actual fear that had tears filling in her eyes. Once had been in that alley years ago when she was stripped bare and abused, and another was-  _is_  what's happening at the current time as she scratches at air around her throat because she's being magically strangled. Avery gasps for any ounce or two of air that she can feed into her lungs when the tips of her toes start to drag across the floor towards Jennifer. With a sadistic grin, Jennifer wraps her fingers around the flesh of Avery's throat when she's in arms reach.

"What do you want from me?" Lydia cries as Jennifer digs her fingers into Avery's throat, her magic keeping Avery from swinging out at her.

"I want you to do what you do best, Lydia. I want you to  _scream_."

Lydia looks on in confusion at Jennifer as she suddenly lets her 'Jennifer' facade drop and exposes her true face as the Darach. When Lydia sees her appearance for the first time, she wails out in fear.

..

..

Avery doesn't know how long it's been since she's been hanging there in mid-air by her throat but she knows someone's coming when Jennifer suddenly tightens her grip once more and cuts off what little air Avery had been able to take in.

Her hands fly up to her throat- glad that Jennifer isn't using magic to keep her arms down- and she starts clawing at Jennifer's hand when the loft door slides open. She continues to struggle and when she hears a low growl echo throughout the loft, she manages to glance to the side and sees Cora with yellow glowing eyes and Derek holding his sister back by the shoulder as he glares at Jennifer.

"Took you long enough." Jennifer states as she finally lets Avery fall in a heap on the floor. "Do you like your present?" She gestures outward towards Kali, Aiden, and Ethan.

As Jennifer saunters off to the side, Cora takes that chance to run forward towards Avery who's gasping for air. Lydia immediately crouches down as the she-wolf goes to cradle Avery while Derek looks around at the dead alphas in his home.

"I- I'm fine." Avery rasps as she starts to sit up on her own. "Guard Lydia." She says before she pushes herself the rest of the way out of Cora's hold and up to her feet.

"You did this for me?" She hears Derek say after he's taken in the outcome of the fight that happened here.

"I did it for  _us._ " Jennifer corrects him which causes Avery to snort and roll her eyes. Jennifer turns to glare at Avery who's glaring right back while trying to soothe her throat by massaging with her fingers. "For anyone who's ever been their victim."

Derek gets angry. "Stop talking to me like a politician." He says as he walks forward. "Stop trying to convince me of your cause!"

"Fine. I'll convince you of someone else's. Scott." Jennifer states confidently. Immediately, everyone in the room tenses as they pay attention to what she has to say now. "You can save his Mother, Stiles' Father.."

"How?"

Jennifer grins. "I need a Guardian. That's a role that can either be filled by the three parents I was forced to take or by you.. and Avery."

Lydia gasps but as Avery catches her gaze, she minutely shakes her head. When she turns back to Derek, she catches him staring at her thoughtfully and she gives him a nod.

She'd do it.

If it meant saving her Dad, she'd do it. She'd do whatever it was so her Dad and Stiles can be reunited.

Derek's shoulders slump when he sees the determination in her eyes. "I can't help you." He finally says as Jennifer saunters up to him. "I'm not even an alpha anymore."

"All I need is for the two of you to help me get Deucalion in the right place at the right time."

"You just killed three of them on your own." Derek grits out. "What do you need us for?"

"You haven't seen him at his strongest. I have." Jennifer shakes her head, fear creeping into her voice. "If he's got Scott with him, I don't stand a chance unless I have you and Avery. You can help me fend off Deucalion while Avery distracts Scott with her skills. He won't kill someone he considers a little sister."

"Derek, don't trust her." Cora finally seethes.

"I have the eclipse in my favor." Jennifer rolls her eyes at Cora's words before looking back up at Derek. "But the moon's only going to be in the Earth's umbra shadow for fifteen minutes. That's the extent of my window. There's no decision to struggle with. Help me kill him and the others live. Just help me!"

Derek clenches his jaw at Jennifer's attempt to get him and Avery on her side. The girl is only a teen and has her whole life in front of her. She shouldn't have to do this. As he glances up, he sees the defeated teen girl stumbling over to her dropped bow and arrow before picking them up and sheathing the lone arrow with the others. When she stands and catches his eye, she looks worn down but gives him the nod of okay.

With a defeated sigh of his own, Derek nods to Jennifer. "Okay."

With a victorious grin, Jennifer looks over her shoulder to catch Avery looking at her and void of any emotion. When she nods to the teen, she turns to Derek and gestures to start walking towards the door. Derek follows without a word and once they're up the four steps, Avery calls out. "Wait. I, uh, I need a moment."

Jennifer and Derek stop at the door, Jennifer sighing and rolling her eyes at the teen and giving her okay. Immediately, Avery drapes her bow across her back and launches herself towards Lydia and Cora- wrapping an arm around each girl's neck in a hug.

"It's okay. It's gonna be okay." She murmurs so only the girls can hear her and possibly Derek. She's really glad that at this moment of time, Jennifer doesn't have keen hearing like the wolves.

"How can you say that?" Lydia cries softly into her friend's shoulder. "She's going to kill you when it's all over."

"And my brother." Cora adds in. "She's going to kill us all once you help her."

"I have that feeling too." Avery admits. "So that's why I need you two to do something for me. If we don't make it out of this tonight, if you don't hear from me, go to my house and get my laptop. I changed the master password to  _Claudia Stilinski._ " She quickly tells both girls. "Get in, log on to my email- same password- and email both Elijah and Nik. Tell them what happened."

Cora pulls back with her brows furrowed in confusion. "Why do you say  _if_ you don't make out if you're so sure you're going to die?"

"Because when I come back to life and Jennifer figures out what's going on, she kill me permanently."

"What?!" Lydia gasps, pulling back and looking at a now grinning Avery with wide eyes. "What are you talking about?" She says as she makes sure to keep her voice low.

"Didn't I ever tell you what vampire blood does to a human when they die with it in their system?" Avery mutters and Lydia shakes her head. "If you die with a vampire's blood in your system, you become one. You'll wake up in transition and if I don't get a drop of human blood in my system during the transition and Jennifer figures it out, she'll kill me in my weakened state." Cora's jaw drops open in shock and Avery doesn't have to turn around to know that Derek is tense as hell and now second guessing his decision on letting Avery do this. "So yeah, if I don't call or answer your call in my newly reawakened state-"

"Don't say that." Cora tries her best not to whine. "Derek won't let that happen. He'll die before he lets Jennifer kill you."

Avery offers the she-wolf a sad smile before shrugging and pulling both girls into one last hug. "We'll see."

..

..

As Derek, Jennifer, and Avery make their way outside- Derek and Jennifer head for Derek's vehicle. Avery pauses halfway which makes the other two stop as well and look to her for an explanation. After telling them that she's taking her bike and will follow them, they let her go and are soon on the road to wherever it is Jennifer needs them.

Seven minutes into the drive, Avery finds themselves at the Nature Preserve and parking. When she gets off and walks up to Derek, he tells her that Jennifer needs to focus on the atmosphere to pinpoint exactly where Deucalion is. Avery then takes a moment to check her phone but when she finds no messages, she lets it go and pockets her phone once more.

As she stares up at Jennifer, she and Derek find the dark druid staring down at her phone. Her phone suddenly pings and as a look of confusion crosses her features, Derek and Avery moving to stand behind her to see what's going on.

It's a video text message and when Jennifer hits play, the first thing Avery sees is the spiral that the werewolves use as a sign to let others know that revenge is coming before Scott's voice leaks through the speaker.  _"You see this symbol? It's a symbol of revenge."_ Scott says before he steps into view with Deucalion behind his shoulder.  _"You talk about balance.. about saving people? We know what you really want and now you know where to find us."_

Jennifer huffs angrily as she pockets her phone, thunder rumbling overhead. "Can you please not make it rain?" Avery deadpans. "I'm on a motorcycle. Wouldn't want me to lose control on a slick road before I can help you, do you?" Jennifer looks up at Avery and glares but Avery just doesn't care anymore. With a shrug and a roll of her eyes, Avery heads back to her bike and straddles it. "What are you waiting for? You do know where we're going, don't you?"

As Jennifer opens her mouth to say something, Avery ignores her by shoving her helmet down over head. She knows it's in her own best interest to not annoy Jennifer but she just can't help it and it's totally worth it when Jennifer huffs and stomps her foot before marching back to Derek's vehicle so they can drive to their next destination.

As Avery starts up her bike and pulls up behind Derek, she can't help but notice how the clouds are shifting in an eerie manner with lightning flashing behind it. This second drive is a bit longer than the first but soon enough, Derek is pulling off to the side with Avery pulling up beside them and parking.

"What are we doing?" She asks as she pulls off her helmet.

"We're here." Is all Jennifer says as she looks to the sky with a smug smirk- the wind picking up as it kicks up some dirt and a fog rolls in. "Follow and stay behind me." She tells them.

Derek and Avery obey without a word. As they near the distillery, Derek falls in line behind Jennifer and Avery falls back behind Derek. Before the dirt and fog can clear up, Avery unhooks her bow from her back and grips the handle as she bows her head in defeat.

The distillery is only feet ahead of them before Derek falls out of line to stand at Jennifer's side and Avery takes a deep breath before she does the same to stand on Jennifer's other side. When she looks up, she finds Deucalion tilting his head to the side curiously as Scott gapes at both her and Derek.

"What are you doing?"

Scott's questions is directed at Avery but feeling the guilt starting to weigh her down, she can't answer and has to look away. "This might be hard to believe but," Derek pipes up. "-we're actually trying to help you."

"No." Scott murmurs as he shakes his head. "Avery, go home."

The desperation is his voice makes Avery's heart ache but she finally manages to look at him again. "I'm sorry, Scooby, but I can't do that." She says as she reaches back, pulling out and arrow and notching it but keeping it leveled towards the ground.

"Ooh." Deucalion drawls. "Like brother against brother.. and sister." Scott turns to look at Deucalion in shock. "How very American this is." When Scott looks back out at the three in front of him, he finds Jennifer and Derek staring at Deucalion while Avery stares at him with her bottom lip trembling as she fights off tears. "Are you ready, Jennifer?" Deucalion says as he starts fold up his walking stick. "Hm? Did you gather your herbs? Pray to your ancient Gods and oak trees?" He asks as he strips out of his outer jacket. "Slit a baby's throat perhaps? Should we show them why you needed to sacrifice nine innocent people just to face me?" He walks forward now, his face transforming into that of his wolf. "Or is it twelve now?"

Avery can't help the way her eyes widen and jaw drops as Deucalion's transformed face turns gray before turning into a near black with glowing red eyes. Avery takes a step back in fear, her eyes darting back and forth between Deucalion and Scott who looks just as shocked as Avery feels. When her gaze darts to Jennifer- Avery sees the dark druid gulp in fear and fidget in place.

Deucalion growls out menacingly before running forward and reaching back with a clawed hand before swiping at them in warning. Jennifer, Avery, and Derek all step back and Derek immediately wolfs out- growling back menacingly at Deucalion. When Avery catches sight of Derek's electric blue eyes, a smart part of her mourns for the alpha he once was and could have been.

Derek and Deucalion lunge at each other, meeting each other halfway. When Derek pulls back and swings at the alpha, Deucalion easy catches him by the wrist. He tries to swing with his other hand but Deucalion catches that one as well.

Derek struggles to release himself from the alpha's grip but Deucalion doesn't let up and in his transformed state- he actually looks amused that Derek can't beat him. Jennifer sneers at them, finally having enough before steeling herself and striding forward with purpose. She pulls her arm back, pushing forward with her palm out inches from Deucalion's chest to release her power but nothing happens. He doesn't budge nor flinch at her power.

He does, however, snap his gaze towards Jennifer and gives her a mock pout before releasing Derek's arms as fast as lightning and grips the both of them by their throats. Jennifer groans loudly as the alpha raises the both of them off the ground so their feet are dangling. After a few seconds, he lets them fall to the ground where Derek immediately stands to his feet to keep on fighting.

"I thought I recruited you to help?" Jennifer snarls at Avery as she crawls towards the teen.

"You did." Avery shrugs, her gaze darting between Jennifer and Derek's fight. "But you made my involvement perfectly clear. I'm Scott's distraction. Not Deucalions."

Scott's head snapped up upon hearing his name, frowning when he heard that Avery was his distraction. If he were to be helping Deucalion, he didn't want to have to go through Avery. That was the last person he wanted to fight.

Everyone's attention is then torn back to the fight when Derek goes spiraling through the air and lands on a bunch of forgotten crates and rubber tires. Jennifer takes that as her chance to run at Deucalion, the alpha easily backhanding Jennifer when she gets too close. She stumbles back a step or two, before Deucalion grips her by the shoulder and shoves her down.

With two of her accomplices down, Avery shakily levels her bow in Deucalion's direction and steels herself for his attack. When his head snaps towards her, Scott stumbles forward- ready to intervene but the alpha merely snorts at Avery and walks towards Jennifer.

Gripping Jennifer by the back of her neck, Deucalion picks her up and walks her towards Scott, making Jennifer drop to her knees. "Kill her." When Scott merely stares at him in shock, Deucalion grits out, "Do it."

Scott doesn't move a muscle, instead he choose to look at Derek who's panting on the ground, at Avery who's still shakily holding her bow though it's leveled at himself now, and at Jennifer who's glaring for being in the position she's in. Deucalion suddenly growls- loud and long- and Scott flinches before falling on all fours. When he looks up, Avery sees that Deucalion forced Scott to change.

"Now kill her." Deucalion tells him. "Your parents are dying. That storm you hear, she's burying them alive. It's her connection to the currents. Kill her and it ends."

Scott looks down, deep in his thoughts when Avery's aim suddenly falters. Killing the parents weren't part of the plan. That's the only reason why she and Derek were here in the first place. "Is it true?" Avery's voice rings out but Jennifer ignores her in favor of Scott.

"It won't end." Jennifer tries as a last minute distraction. "Not with me. He'll have you kill everyone you love. It's what he does."

"They're dying, Scott." Deucalion tempts Scott to make his decision faster. "Your mother and the parents of your best friends. Kill her now and it's over. Become the alpha you're meant to be. Become a  _killer._ "

And now- now Avery is completely torn. She doesn't want Deucalion nor Jennifer to win. But Jennifer is possibly killing their parents and if Scott kills Jennifer, it'll ruin his chance at becoming the True Alpha and Deucalion will slaughter them all. Scott is still in thought as Avery has her mental breakdown- her own heart and mind racing at the different scenarios that could possibly happen.

Derek is still down, possibly getting his strength back but if he attempts to take out Jennifer- Deucalion will toss him back. Deucalion won't let Derek kill Jennifer because he wants Scott to and Scott killing Jennifer is just a major NO. The only option is her.

And that's when it clicks. If she kills Jennifer then this all ends. Deucalion will throw a major temper tantrum and probably kill her for it but Scott can still turn into the alpha he's supposed to.

Suddenly very determined to kill the one she was supposed to be helping, Derek catches her gaze and shakes his head at her- for her not to do it. Avery frowns, mouths  _I'm sorry_ before leveling the arrow at Jennifer's back.

Deucalion nor Jennifer see her and right before Avery can release her arrow, Scott's voice stalls her. "They're not dead yet."

"And who's going to save them?" Deucalion states. "Your friends?"

Scott glares at Deucalion as he moves to stand and lets his eyes glow and eerie yellow. "My Pack."

Deucalion growls lowly before practically roaring and in the blink of eye- he's suddenly at Scott's side gripping the beta by the back of his neck and one of his wrist. "Maybe you just need a little guidance."

He walks Scott towards Jennifer who's sprawled on the floor and Avery levels her bow at Deucalion. This back and forth was starting to give her a headache.

"I forgot to tell you something." Scott pants and once more, Avery stalls. "Something that Gerard told me." And now, he has the alphas attention. "Deucalion.. isn't always blind."

Avery sees Scott reach into his pocket, pulling out a handful of silver objects before throwing them on the ground. They spark and flash simultaneously, causing Deucalion to let him go and cover his eyes as he stumbles backwards. Avery shields her eyes but just enough so she's able to see Derek scramble to his feet while covering his eyes- Scott doing the same as Jennifer rolls out of the way.

Deucalion is left swinging and slashing with his claws blindly in a circle and Avery watches on in awe as Deucalion's wolf transformation fades away. Looking to Scott who's crouched on his knees, she sees that he too is back to his human form as well as Derek who just looks confused to not be in wolf form anymore.

"The eclipse." Deucalion pants as he blindly looks around. "It's started."

Scott looks around in awe before his gaze stays set on the floor in front of him. Avery follows his gaze towards the empty floor, wondering why it seems so important when it finally clicks in her mind. The floor is  _empty._ The floor where they had last seen Jennifer is empty.

"Oh no." Scott murmurs at the same time Avery groans, "Crap."

Deucalion just lingers around now that he can't see anymore and Scott moves forward as he gazes out the door where they dust is really hard to see through. Avery seems perplexed at what her friend is staring at so when she joins him at his side, she peers through the dust and it takes a moment to see what he's seeing.

It's Jennifer- well the Darach in all her glory and black flowy skirt with her mauled face as she struts back into the building. Scott and Avery both gape at her, the Darach screeching before she moves in with inhumane speed- touching both Avery and Scott on their chest with her palms, and sends the two flying backward. They hit a bunch of tall aluminum barrels, denting them with their bodies before they crash down to the ground with pained groans.

Avery is slow to move, her body screaming out in agony as she tries to sit up. Scott is moving next to her, casting her a worried glance but she manages a feeble smile for him. She hears Deucalion scream out before sickening thud after thud echos throughout the room.

"Jennifer!" Derek's voice suddenly rings out. "He doesn't know."

"Know what?" Jennifer's voice is not her usual voice.

"What you really look like. He knows the cost of bringing Kali into his pack but he's never seen the price you paid."

"No, no he hasn't." Jennifer finally says.

Avery groans, reaching out to take Scott's hand seeing as he's the first to his feet. "You okay?" He mutters and Avery nods.

"I'm fine. Just a some bumps and bruises."

Scott doesn't take her word for it and starts looking her over. He brushes her hair away from her face, checking for a wound that has blood trickling down her right temple. As his fingers brush over the bruising and scratches of her neck, she frowns as she sees him grimace. Looking down at his arm, Avery sees the black veins on his arm as he siphons away her pain.

"Stop that!" Avery slaps his hand away. "I'm fine. You can do that later when this is over with."

Deucalion's pained screams fill the air, startling everyone. A second later, the screams stop as Jennifer steps away and Deucalion blinks rapidly, his eyes suddenly clear and not clouded over like they usually were.

"Turn to me." Jennifer commands him. "Turn to me!" She screeches and Deucalion finally obliges.

He looks up at her in fear before the Darach's true form fades away and her Jennifer facade is back in place. She pulls back, reaching back with her arm and ready to deliver a killing blow to the fallen alpha before she falters and sways in spot- weakened.

Derek runs forward and catches her. "What is this?" She pants confusedly.

"Healing him made you weak." Derek tells her. "Just like healing Cora did to me. You won't have your strength for at least a few minutes."

"Then you do it." She pants seductively. "Kill him."

"No." Derek shakes his head and Avery hides a proud grin as Scott steadies her.

Jennifer's brows furrow in confusion and anger. "What?"

"Like my mother used to say- I'm a predator. I don't have to be a killer." Jennifer actually has the audacity to look hurt and betrayed as Derek roughly grips her by the throat. "Let them go." He growls at her as much as he can in his human form but Jennifer steels herself, her top lip curling in anger as she pushes back against Derek and throws him down- breaking a crate.

Jennifer stalks up to him, leaning down and starts throwing punch after punch. Avery whines, wincing as she hurriedly reaches back for an arrow and notches it. Once again, she's about to let the arrow fly but Scott's hand on her shoulder stops her. Jennifer's looking down at Derek and Derek is glaring up at her before he turns his attention elsewhere and ignores her.

Slowly, Jennifer stands and turns as she tries to catch her breath and Derek stands up behind her. She turns back to him as he tries to grip her by the front of her shirt but she grips his shirt first and pushes him up against a wall. The two struggle to get the upper hand on each other but it's Jennifer who easily controls their situation. With the grip on his shirt, she easily pulls Derek forward before slamming back into the wall repeatedly. Derek takes it all and on her last push, she slides Derek up the wall and continues to slam him against it. The pain is evident in his features and Avery's finally had enough.

"Jennifer!" She yells, starting the woman in her attack. As Jennifer turns, Avery narrows her eyes but aims the arrow to the right of Jennifer's head and lets it fly.

The arrow purposefully hits the wall, igniting a few sparks that startle Jennifer. As Jennifer glares at Avery, she watches the teen's gaze dart behind her and a smug grin tilt up the corner of her lips.

"What are you-"

Growling cuts Jennifer off and as she turns back towards Derek, his eyes are glowing blue. "Your fifteen minutes are up." He shoves Jennifer off of him, sending her falling back as he finally falls back to his feet.

Scott sees that Jennifer's vulnerable and rushes at her as she scrambles to her feet. Reaching into her back pocket, Jennifer pulls something out before thrusting her hand in the air- causing a circle of black power to make a perimeter around her. When Scott skids to a stop, Avery then realizes it's mountain ash.

"Like I told you, Derek and Avery, either you or the parents." She snarls at the both of them. "I guess I'll just have to take them now. In a few minutes, they'll be dead and I won't need a lunar eclipse even to kill a demon wolf." Derek and Scott glance at each other in worry and with new found determination and confidence- Avery strolls forward ready to break the line of mountain ash with her foot. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Jennifer spits out at her. "You take one more step and I'll bring it down. Your Dad, Scott's mom, your best friend's dad- I'll kill them all before Scott can take two steps towards me."

Avery falters, eyes going wide. "That's right. It'll be your fault they die, Stilinski. Can you stomach that?"

Avery frowns as she steps back- Jennifer's smug expression making her want to do it anyway. But Scott- Scott looks all sorts of determined as he holds his palms out as if touching an invisible wall.

"You've tried this before, Scott." Jennifer nearly laughs. "I don't remember you having much success."

Scott's hands collide with the invisible wall, a blue glow surrounding his hands. With his face set in a glare, he pushes against it until the blue glow surrounds his entire body. Jennifer's smugness soon vanishes and she fidgets nervously as Scott's arm breaches the circle- Derek and Avery both watching on in awe. Avery then stumbles to the side, just enough so that she's able to see Scott's face and watches as the yellow glow of his eyes bleed red.

Alpha red.

Jennifer's jaw is on the verge of dropping and Scott's right foot breaches the circle next. Jennifer takes a step back in fear, Derek's shocked expression glancing between Scott and Jennifer before Scott's other foot breaches the circle and he breaks it. Jennifer falls to the ground as the power from the mountain ash lashes out from Scott breaching it and she scrambles backward in fear. "How did you do that?"

"I'm an alpha now." Scott says. "Whatever you're doing to cause this storm, make it stop or I'll kill you myself. I don't care what it does to the color of my eyes."

Jennifer pants heavily, her lips curling in anger as she glares up at Scott. Avery knows she's not going to do it without a fight and they're wasting precious time so as discreetly as she could, she reached back for an arrow.

"It won't change the color of mine." Deucalion says and as everyone sans Avery turns to him, Avery notches the arrow. "So allow me." He marches forward, his intent to maim Jennifer with his claws very clear but before he can inflict damage, an arrow flies in their line of vision and hits Jennifer in the throat.

Shocked- Derek, Scott, and Deucalion turn to Avery who's clenching her jaw in anger and glaring daggers at Jennifer as she moves to crouch down in front of her.

"I made myself perfectly clear should you betray us."

"I- I didn't." Jennifer rasps, the Jennifer facade fading away until the Darach is left gasping for breath.

"You changed the rules on us. Gave me no other option and in my mind, that's just as bad as betrayal." Avery seethes. "You wanted to sacrifice Derek and myself in the place of the parents and while I'm not Pack, Beacon Hills is my home now and I'll protect those I consider friends. Those who I consider  _family_."

Jennifer's hand reaches up to the arrow protruding from her throat as she gasps and tries to breathe around it. She falls back slowly until she falls to her side hiccuping and gasping for air that would soon stop.

Avery pants heavily, her adrenaline finally fading away as her hands tremble. She doesn't regret shooting the arrow but with everything catching up to her, it's just all too much.

"Avery?" Scott calls out to her, reaching a hand out but Avery quickly stands and moves out of his grasp.

"Don't." She gulps. "Just.. don't."

Scott frowns but gives her the space she so badly needs. Derek sighs out tiredly before taking a seat on a nearby crate as Deucalion looks over Jennifer's dying body. Scott then reaches into his pocket for his phone, dialing a number. "Hey, are you okay?" After a moment, Scott looks over to Derek who shrugs and then over to Avery who won't meet anyone's gaze. "Sort of."

In the midst of her zoning out, her phone's vibrations snap her out of her thoughts. Reaching into her own pocket, Avery pulls out her phone to see a message from Lydia.  _'I really hope you're alive right now. Aiden and Ethan are still alive so when you're finished there, come to Deaton's. Cora and myself are helping out Deaton with them.'_

Avery sighs out, tears clouding her vision as her shoulders slump with relief. As Scott finally hangs up, Avery looks up at him and lets out a hysterical chuckle before Scott's there and pulling her into a hug. Before any of them can say anything, Deucalion clears his throat and all three of them turn to him.

Standing side-by-side, with Scott in the middle, Derek crosses his arms across his chest. "My mother told me you were a man of vision once." Derek and Scott share a look of understanding before Derek turns back to Deucalion. "We're letting you go because we hope you can be that man again."

"But if you're not," Scott throws in. "-then having your eyesight won't matter because you won't see us coming."

Deucalion looks at all three of them, never saying anything as the three turn their back and walk out of the distillery. Once a good ways away, Scott tells them that Stiles and the others made it in time to the parents but they're trapped underground. Avery then comes clean that Lydia and Cora are at Deaton's because the twins were still alive- and after a brief explanation to Scott about the twins' situation- he nods.

"Here." Derek says as he tosses Scott the keys to his vehicle. "Go get the parents and take them to the hospital. Lydia and Cora are going to wanna to see Avery for themselves so we'll head to Deaton's before I send her to the hospital. Just leave my car at the loft when you're done."

"Yeah.. yeah, okay." Scott nods as he jogs towards Derek's mode of transportation. "Is there anything you want me to tell your brother?" Scott then asks Avery.

Avery shakes her head before grimacing. "Just tell him I'm fine and that I'll see him soon." She says as she and Derek head for her motorcycle.

Scott nods and hops in Derek's vehicle before starting up it's engine and peeling out in the gravel. Derek immediately holds his hand out for the key and Avery rolls her eyes.

"Do you even know how to ride?"

Derek doesn't say anything so Avery drops the key into his palm. As Avery takes her helmet, Derek climbs on and waits for Avery to climb on behind him after she slings her bow across her back. "It's been a while." He finally admits. "A long while so you might want to hold on tightly."

Avery groans but then laughs and shoves the helmet over head. Once it's in place, she tells Derek that she's ready and grins when her bike roars to life. As they lurch forward and then brake harshly, Avery cackles inside her helmet before Derek tells her to shutup with a laugh of his own. When Derek finally refreshes his mind about the clutch and brake, Avery wraps her arms around Derek's middle and prays he doesn't crash.

..

..

By the time they pull into the parking lot outside of Deaton's, Avery is scrambling off the back of her bike and ripping her helmet off along the way inside. She doesn't wait for Derek to turn off her bike but she trusts him to not damage her bike in any way.

As she comes to a stop in the back room, she finds Cora helping Ethan stand as he winces in pain. Aiden is laying on a metal stretcher with an oxygen mask on as he strokes the inside of Lydia's wrist.

"Oh my god." She breathes out, catching everyone's attention.

Lydia, Cora, and Ethan all smile at her but when they catch sight of her appearance- their smiles all falter. "What happened?" Lydia demands and Aiden finally moves to see her.

Avery shakes her head. "Nothing. We won. That's all that matters." She says as she takes off her bow and quiver of arrows before tossing it to the side.

Derek and Deaton walk in behind her, Cora's attention snapping towards him as she sighs in relief and leaves Ethan's side to go hug her brother. Lydia looks ready to argue but Deaton cuts her off as he turns Avery to look at him. "Derek tells me you're headed for the hospital after this?" She nods her affirmative. "Well then, lets clean you up a bit. I'm pretty sure with the Sheriff being found in his condition, the place will be swarming with law enforcement and your appearance will have them asking questions."

Avery opens her mouth to argue but as she thinks about, she realizes he has a point. "Fine."

Deaton flashes her a rare smile before leading her to the back of the room where she sits through the stinging of alcohol cleansing the small abrasions around her neck and the bigger cut at her hairline. When Deaton finishes with that, he allows her to use the sinks to clean off any remaining dirt around her face, neck, and arms. When she's done with that, she moves to Lydia's side where Lydia proceeds to hug her friend.

"I'm glad you're okay."

Avery hugs her tightly before letting go and finds Aiden staring at her. She's still angry with him but for Lydia's sake, she plasters on a grin and gives him a nod. He does the same and as Lydia goes back to paying him attention, Avery moves on to Ethan who's sitting up and smirking lazily at her.

Avery grins at him, ruffling his hair. "I thought you were dead." She tells him sadly.

"For a moment, I thought the same too." He tells her.

Avery smiles tiredly at him but when someone calls her name, she looks up for the source. It turns out to be Cora who's standing in the open doorway and she's gesturing for her to come out. Without second guessing her, Avery leaves Ethan's side as she follows the female Hale outside to where Derek is waiting in the parking lot.

Once there, Cora moves to stand beside her brother. "We're leaving." She blurts and grimaces when she sees Avery's eyes widen in shock. "In the morning, we'll be gone."

"Why?!" Avery nearly screeches before clearing her throat and lowering her voice. "The alphas are done for. There's no threat here anymore. Why would you-"

"We'll be back." Derek cuts in when he realizes that Avery isn't taking the news so well and her heart beat is picking up speed. "There's just something we need to do and since Scott's an alpha now, he has Beacon Hills under control. You'll be fine."

Avery gapes like a fish out of water for a bit before she slumps with defeat and tears gather in her eyes. "When will you be back?"

"I don't know." Derek shrugs. "But we won't be gone for forever."

Avery nods and before she knows it, she's being wrapped in another hug but this time, it's Cora who's hugging her. After she manages to relax her body from the sudden hug attack, Avery wraps her arms around her friend. "You'll keep in touch, won't you?" When Cora doesn't answer, she looks up to Derek. "I won't tell them. I can tell them you left if you want but I won't give them your whereabouts if you decide to keep in touch."

Cora pulls out of the hug, stepping back suddenly with a feeble grin and then Derek's pulling Avery into a hug. With him hugging her, she finally breaks down in his arms. With everything that's happened and then the news of them leaving, it really is too much for her to keep it bottled up.

"We'll keep in touch." Derek mumbles as he settles his chin atop her head. "But only with you." Avery nods against his chest- trying to calm down her choked sobs as Derek continues to talk. "This- this is what I wanted to do earlier back in my loft before Cora and I first left." He admits to her now. "But with everyone around, I couldn't show them how Stiles' little sister crawled beneath my skin and turned me into a softie."

Avery laughs a watery chuckle. "You're totally a cuddly werewolf, aren't you?" Derek snorts and Avery hugs him tighter. "I bet you're a closet cuddler."

Derek huffs a laugh and Cora chuckles at Avery's musings. "Should I be worried that you're thinking about whether or not I like to cuddle?"

"No." Avery grins as she pulls out of the hug, wiping away her tears. "You're not my type."

"That's right." Cora teases. "She's all about Isaac."

Avery blushes under their stares as both werewolves give her a knowing look. "You take care of yourself." Derek then tells her as he shoves his hands deep in his pockets. "Take of Isaac and your brother. He always seems to find trouble."

"Don't worry. I will." Avery nods at him.

They lapse into a moment of silence before Derek finally sighs. "Well, I guess we'll see you when we see you."

"You better."

As Derek starts to slowly walk backward, Cora looks between him and Avery one last time before launching herself to hug Avery once more. "I'll make sure he keeps in touch." She murmurs into her ear.

"Thank you." Avery mumbles back. As Cora pulls out of the hug and starts walking backward, Avery's brows furrow in confusion. "Hey, um, is Peter leaving with y'all too?"

Derek and Cora look at each other before looking out to Avery and shrugging. With one last grin, Derek and Cora turn around and walk off into the night.

* * *

**I know Peter went back and really killed Jennifer but since I'm not writing 3b into this fic, let's just pretend Peter's a creepy nice guy.**

**And don't worry, Scott's little chat with Deaton about what he does when the darkness becomes too much will be in the next chapter _although_  the talk isn't with Deaton ;) You'll just have to wait to find out and I have some- hopefully- interesting filler chapters coming soon that will wrap things up :)**


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: This picks up after the previous chapter. I know it's days after the final showdown that Scott talks to Deaton about the darkness around his heart but I'm changing it. He won't talk to Deaton about it and the talk will take place the next morning after the showdown.

Avery's standing alone in the parking lot outside of Deaton's clinic.

Her face is impassive as she stares out into nothingness, just now regretting that she let Derek and Cora out of her sight. The two Hales had grew on her rather quickly and while she and Cora took a while to come around to one another, it still hurt to watch them walk away. Their words were still whirling around in her mind, their words about them coming back but she had a feeling things weren't as simple as they made it out to be.

Vibration against her leg snaps her out of her thoughts. As she digs out her phone, she catches Isaac's name and picture taking up her screen. Quickly accepting the call, she holds it up to her ear. "Hello?"

" _Avery."_ Isaac sighs airily.  _"You're okay."_

"Uh, yeah." She grins though he can't see her. "Scott was supposed to tell you all I was fine."

" _Yeah, he did."_ Isaac mumbles.  _"But I just had to hear you for myself."_

"Okay.. well I'm fine." Avery weakly chuckles. "How are things on your end?"

" _Chaotic. When your Dad showed up in the E.R along with the other two missing parents, the law enforcement swarmed the place."_

"Ooh, that sucks."

" _Yeah and now your Dad is asking for you. He's arguing with Scott that you're not okay and he wants to see you for himself."_

"Crap." Avery pinches the bridge of her nose. "The last he saw of me was when Ms. Blake tossed me across the room and broke some things in my body."

" _Yeah. He's getting really red."_ Isaac mutters with a suppressed laugh.  _"I think Scott is scared. Yep, he's definitely scared and mad I'm making fun of him. I think you better-"_

"I'm on my way." Avery laughs. "Tell Scott to hang on."

" _Okay."_

"I'll see you soon. Bye."

..

..

After telling Deaton and Lydia that she was leaving because her Dad was asking for her, Avery quickly finds herself back on her bike and heading for the hospital. With everyone swarming the hospital in hopes of getting a statement from the Sheriff, Chris, and Melissa- Avery pushes her bike to the limit of it's speed capacity.

And sure enough, once she gets to the hospital, the parking lot is packed with Beacon Hills Police Cruisers and the dark SUVs- most likely belonging to the FBI agents. After quickly finding a space so that they don't tow her bike away, Avery quickly hops off and as she runs through the waiting room- she's ripping off her helmet and searching the room and halls for any sign of her family or friends.

There are a few people sitting in the waiting area looking at her as if she's lost her mind and a few nurses standing by that look ready to intervene should she start making a scene.

But before she could give them a scene, Isaac appears down one of the halls. "Avery!"

The look of relief that passes over Isaac's face and the fact that he's running down the hall towards her has Avery breaking out into an ear-to-ear grin. The moment Isaac has his arms wrapped around his girlfriend and lifts her off the ground while shoving his face in the crook of her neck- Avery laughs. "Whoa, there. I take it you're happy to see me?"

"Ecstatic." He breathes when he sets her back down on her feet, cradling her face in the palms of his hands before pressing a kiss to her lips. Given their surroundings and audience, Isaac doesn't push it further than a few seconds lip lock and a bunch of follow up pecks.

"Mmm." Avery laughs as Isaac continues to pepper her lips with chaste kisses. "I can see."

After getting his reassurance that Avery was indeed right in front of him, he pulls back while continuing to cradle her face in the palms of his hands. As his eyes scan her face, they eventually fall to her neck where he frowns and moves to push her hair aside.

"Don't." She catches his hands and pushes him away. "Not here."

"But-"

"It's over, Isaac." Avery pleads with him. "Every warrior is going to have their battle wounds. Just be glad mine have been looked after by Deaton and will heal within weeks, if not days." Isaac's frown deepens as he manages to lean in and brush his fingers against the scratches on her neck, the ones that were self-inflicted because Avery couldn't control her panic when Jennifer was magically strangling her. "You can play Doctor later." She huffs with a roll of her eyes. "I'm pretty sure you told me to hurry because my Dad was freaking out."

That seems to snap Isaac out of his trance as he pulls back. "Yeah. Uh, this way." He gulps before snaking an arm around her waist and leading her down the hall.

When they turn down one hall, Avery sees several nurses crowding around a room at the end of the new hall she and Isaac are heading down. There are two police officers standing guard while the nurses fidget in place and whisper to one another.

" _Where's my daughter?! I don't want any damn sedatives until I see her!_ "

Avery's eyes comically widen and Isaac snorts. "He's been like that for a while. We haven't been able to calm him down because someone who doesn't know what's going on in this town has been stationed inside and we can't risk them overhearing."

Avery owlishly blinks and nods as she listens to her Dad's shouting, and as they near the room- the Officers perk up. "It's okay." Isaac tells them. "She's the daughter."

At the word 'daughter', the Officers and Nurses seem to relax and give the both of them entry to the room. The second John lays eyes on his daughter, he visibly relaxes as well as the room's occupants which include a Doctor, two more nurses, an FBI looking agent, and Stiles.

"Sweetheart." John's voice cracks as he drinks in the sight of his daughter. His gaze is set directly on her throat before falling to her jean clad legs and as she chances a glance down, she realizes her red jeans are dirtied.

"Hey, Avs." Stiles uncomfortably smirks at his sister with a little wave as Avery mentally curses her stupidity.

"Stiles." Avery greets with a forced smile. She makes a move to adjust her hair so it blocks her throat area but the nurses still see it.

"Miss?" A female nurse moves forward, dark brown hair pulled into a low bun as gray eyes crinkle in confusion. "Do you need to be looked at as well?"

Avery catches the FBI agent stirring to get a look at her but Avery quickly shakes her head. "No. No, I'm fine. I've been checked already." She assures her.

"But Miss-"

"I said I'm fine!" Avery snaps at her, narrowing her eyes in annoyance so the nurse knows to back off. Isaac pulls her back into his side, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and glaring at the nurse as well. Seeing that the teen wanted no help, the nurse backs off and Stiles joins Isaac in comforting his sister. "Everyone needs to get out." Avery suddenly tells them. "Everyone except my brother and Isaac." No-one moves a step so Avery raises her voice. "NOW!"

The two female nurses jump at being startled by the sudden harshness of the teen and scurry out of the room with the male Doctor following slowly. The FBI agent lingers in the room, eyeing Avery carefully.

"So you're the long lost twin." He drawls.

Avery's attention snaps to him, eyes narrowing as she takes in the light blue button up beneath a dark blazer hanging off his shoulders. He seems a bit younger than her own Dad but not by much. At least, she doesn't think so when she doesn't spot a single gray hair on his head. "Who are you?"

"I'm, uh," He fumbles, patting down his pockets before pulling out a wallet and flipping it open so she can see his badge. "Agent McCall. I believe you're friends with my son."

"I see." Avery then drawls, crossing her arms over her chest. "Not to sound like bitch, Mr. McCall, but  _I believe_ the woman of your child has been checked in here as well. Shouldn't you be with her?"

"Well would you look at that." He slowly smirks before he lets his gaze drift over to Stiles. "She's got the same fire as you, kid." Stiles huffs and puffs at Mr. McCall's words but before he can get worked up- Agent McCall turns to John. "Sheriff, I'll be back in a bit to take your statement."

And with that, Agent McCall leaves the room and Avery moves to quickly shut the door behind him. With a sigh, she turns to face the room and is immediately enveloped in a hug by Stiles.

"Holy hell, Avery." He breathes hotly though not loud enough for outsiders to hear. "What the hell happened to you? Scott filled is in on some but you look.."

"Jennifer put up one hell of fight." She chuckles before gently pushing her brother away.

Looking over his shoulder, she finds John looking at her and he looks like he's on the verge of tears. He's sitting shirtless in the hospital bed, a bed sheet pooled in his lap and a thick piece of gauze is taped to the right side of his chest. As Avery stumbles towards him, John huffs out a cry.

"It's okay, Dad." Avery assures him, tears of her own filling her eyes. "It's all over now."

The second she reaches his bed, he leans forward and grips her by the arm- pulling her down onto the bed with him and hugs the life out of her. He lets a few sobs escape before he quickly sobers up and moves back to look her in the eyes. "Honey, how are you-  _why_  aren't you injured worse? I saw what she did to you.. and your neck!  _Sweetie_.."

Avery blinks away tears before using the back of her hand to brush them away. "It's a long story, Dad. Very long story that's more suitable for home than this place."

"Avery-"

"No, Dad." She shakes her head. "I promise-  _promise-_ that once you're released we'll have a very long discussion. There's so much you don't know- so much that I couldn't tell you but now I can."

John slowly shuts his mouth and with a sigh, he nods. "Okay. But your neck," He frowns. "-what happened there?"

"Self-inflicted." She answers him. If anything, giving him this one answer is sure to hold him over until he gets released and they could talk about this in their own home. "Jennifer used her magic against to me to strangle me from half a room away and in my panic, well, I started clawing at my throat. This was my fault."

"No." John shakes his head at her. "No, it's not your fault. It's not your fault." He mutters before bringing her back in for another hug.

Avery hugs him, letting him hug to his heart's content before maneuvering around so she's side-by-side with him with her back to the elevated bed top. John takes the hint, scooting over on his bed so Avery can settle in next to him.

"You're definitely telling me everything when I get home.  _Everything._ You and Stiles both."

"Of course." Avery yawns. "But since Stiles is older, he gets to tell you his story first."

"What?!" Stiles squeaks but when John sets him with a glare, he quickly nods. "Yeah, okay, sure. I can go first."

Avery smothers her grin as Isaac snorts in amusement. "Don't think I forgot about you, Lahey." John then voices. "Did my daughter know you were a werewolf when you two decided to get close?"

Isaac blushes and stutters under John's inquiring gaze and this time, Stiles laughs.

"Shut it, Boy Wonder." Avery levels her twin with a playful glare.

"Whatever you say, Katniss." He teases back.

"Oh my god." John groans at his bickering kids- Isaac sighing in relief as he shrinks back towards the wall now that John isn't paying him any attention. "You two and Isaac need to go home.  _And_ I'd prefer if you all stay together. Just as a precaution."

"Dad." Stiles groans. "We don't need a babysitter."

"I know." He shrugs. "But I'd just feel better if you had some of the supernatural realm there on your side  _in case_  something were to happen."

John looks set in his decision so Stiles caves. "Fine but I'm inviting over Scott."

"Really?" Avery grins. "I'm pretty sure Scott won't want to leave Melissa's side."

Stiles deflates at that and with a roll of his eyes, he throws his arms outward in mock agitation. "Whatever. Lets just go if we're leaving. They're not releasing Dad until tomorrow night and Dad says we still have to attend school tomorrow so we might as well leave now. Scott told us Deucalion killed Jennifer and that Deucalion left after you gave him a choice so we don't have to worry about anything."

Avery is speechless, the teen gulping at her brother's words.  _Deucalion_ killed  _Jennifer._

Her heart skips a beat and then two, and when she doesn't say anything, Isaac takes a step forward. "Avery? You okay?"

"What?" She snaps out of her thoughts, trying her best to calm herself down before Isaac picks up on it. When his words click in her mind, she shakes her head clear. "Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I'm good."

Neither Stiles or Isaac look like they believe her but with a discreet shake of her head, they drop it for the time being. "Okay, okay." Stiles finally says. "Can you at least sign my release forms so I can actually leave then?"

"Whoa, wait, what?" Avery leans forward in a flash. "Why do you need to be released?" Stiles looks sheepish now and no-one wants to meet her gaze. "Stiles." She says deathly calm.

He flinches at the sound of her voice before shoving his hands in his pockets and hunching in on himself. "I crashed my jeep into a tree. I was out for a while and the doctors thought I had a concussion but I didn't."

Taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly, Avery closes her eyes so she doesn't lose it. "Yeah, yeah." She grumbles. "Just go get your damn form so we can get home, clean up, and get some sleep before we go to school. I don't even know why we're going after all that's happened." She says as she pouts at John.

"Consider it payback for keeping me in the dark." He hides a grin. "You said yourself there's nothing to worry about so I don't see why you can't continue with your education."

Stiles chuckles before he leaves the room in search for a Doctor who can get him his release papers. The remaining three occupants lapse into a silence but John doesn't take his eyes off his daughter for more than a second at a time. Though, he does linger a bit on Isaac when the teen werewolf won't stop staring at his daughter as if she's going to suddenly disappear.

Avery fidgets under her Dad's stare for a moment only to breathe out in relief when Stiles reappears with a Doctor who's carrying a clipboard. As Avery moves to the side to join Isaac- John catches the two teens linking hands before pushing their joined hands behind them. He doesn't say anything- instead he chooses to listen to the Doctor drone on about what the release papers say and so on.

After a handful of minutes and having the papers officially signed, the Doctor leaves and the teens prepare to take their leave as well. John calls in a Police Officer, one of his from the Beacon Hills department, and asks if he can drive his kids home. The Officer says he can, asking the three teens to follow him but before Isaac and Avery can exit the room- John stalls them.

"Hold it, Avery. Isaac." John grunts. When the two teens turn to him with their 'deer caught in headlights' look, he rolls his eyes. "Just.. don't make me regret letting you stay the night without adult supervision in my home, Isaac." He says and when Avery opens her mouth to deny whatever it is she's going to, John gestures to their hands. "You two are not as subtle as you think you are. Now go. Your brother and Deputy Evans are waiting for you."

Avery snaps her mouth shut, Isaac blushes, and John laughs as Avery drags the werewolf out of the room and away from him. Once caught up with Stiles and Deputy Evans, Avery walks off towards her bike. After quickly explaining that she has her own mode of transportation, and that she'd follow them on her bike, Stiles and Isaac take the offered ride from the Deputy and after a less than five minute drive, they're soon at the Stilinski household.

The moment they step foot inside the home and Avery stows her helmet away in the downstairs closet, Isaac and Stiles swoop in.

"What happened tonight?"

"Why'd you tense up in Dad's room?"

"What didn't you want to say in front of him?"

Avery sighs, her heart beating significantly faster as she heads for the living room and readies herself to tell them truth. She toes off her boots along the way and plops herself down in her Dad's favorite black recliner with a sigh. When she gets comfortable, she pulls off the mesh shirt she's wearing over her head which leaves her in only the red tank and jeans. As she brings her feet up on the chair, she rests her forehead on her knees.

"Deucalion didn't kill Jennifer." She grumbles as she hides her face from them- afraid of what their reactions are going to me. "I did."

Avery clenches her eyes shut though they can't see her face and prays that they get all the yelling and or shock out of their systems and fast. But whatever Avery is expecting, it doesn't happen. When the silence after her declaration becomes too much, she chances a look up at them.

"What did you just-" Stiles cuts himself off, looking as if he's still trying to process. "You wanna run that by us again?"

Avery sighs, tears immediately filling her eyes and she pushes her hair back behind her ears. Clearing her throat and looking anywhere else but at her brother and Isaac, she repeats herself. "I killed Jennifer. I shot an arrow through her throat." Again silence falls over them and Avery finally lets the tears fall. As her bottom lip trembles- it snaps Isaac and Stiles out of the shocked stupor.

"Hey, no, don't do that." Isaac immediately mumbles when he sees the tears. He steps forward, easily perching atop the arm rest and wrapping an arm around Avery's shoulders as Stiles comes to stand in front of her.

"No need for the tears, Avs." He tells her. "Ms. Blake deserved what she got."

Avery's gaze snaps to meet his. "You're not mad?"

"Mad?" Isaac's brows furrow in confusion. "Why would we be mad?"

"Because I killed someone!" Avery squeaks- her eyes wide as her attention darts between the two boys. "I killed another human being! The only difference between us was that she practiced magic. You should be disgusted by me."

"Avery.." Stiles sadly sighs and crouches in front of his sister. "Jennifer was no ordinary human being. She harnessed power that no human should have access to and she murdered innocent people along her path to harness said power. You did nothing wrong."

Avery seems to slump further into her seat at her brother's words, every fiber of her being relaxing as well, and it's something that Isaac's senses immediately pick up on. "That's why Scott said Deucalion killed her. He covered for you because you regretted doing it."

"I don't regret doing it." Avery mumbles, laying her head back on her knees. "I was- I was just caught up in the fight. I was angry at her jerking me around and the way she was beating Derek and I just lost it. She was testing Scott on whether or not he'd really kill her and then Deucalion stepped up to the plate to kill her but I beat him to the punch. Afterward- when Jennifer stopped fighting to breathe- I snapped out of the angry haze I was in and was shocked that I actually did what I did. I needed a moment and then I got scared that if you knew, you'd look at me differently."

"I'd never look at you any differently." Stiles murmurs, reaching forward and knocking his sister's legs to the side so she'd look up at him. "Your my flesh and blood- my twin. Whatever you do, I know there's a good reason for it."

Avery gave him a feeble smile before looking up at Isaac where he returned the grin to her. "You're my girlfriend. Of course I'll back you up."

She snorts at him, shaking her head in amusement as she moves to rest her head on Isaac's leg. "I just ask one thing of you both, though. Don't tell Dad. I'll fill him in on my life back in Louisiana but let him think Deucalion killed Jennifer."

There's nothing more said on the matter after Isaac and Stiles give their word. Stiles soon heads upstairs, telling them that he's going to shower before he eats and falls asleep. While Stiles showers, Isaac leaves to go pick up clothes from Scott's home so he can shower there at the Stilinski's home as well. And while both boys are busy, Avery quickly throws together sandwiches and hot pockets for when the boys come looking for food before she eats a quick snack herself and rushes upstairs to retrieve her laptop.

As Avery settles down on the sofa with her laptop in her lap booting up, Isaac returns. He tosses his clothes on the recliner before following his nose to the kitchen. When he comes back into the living room, he has a plate stacked with three sandwiches and two hot pockets. With a sheepish grin and shrug, Avery laughs at him and pats the spot next to her for him to sit.

When Isaac settles in, Avery immediately logs into her email and selects two contacts in the  _'To:'_ field- Elijah and Nik. With Isaac reading over her shoulder, Avery tiredly sighs and starts to write out her message.

_Dear Elijah and Nik,_

_I'm sorry I haven't kept the both of you entirely in the loop but it's about time I tell you everything._

_It all started on my first day of school here when a flock of birds flew themselves into the window and I ended up finding out that my brother's best friend is a werewolf.._

* * *

The following morning, Avery wakes up in her room sore as can be. Her neck is stinging in pain from when she clawed at it, her back is aching like it's never ached before, and her arms and legs have more than a few bruises that's going to be hard to explain.

After writing the email to Nik and Elijah last night, she ate a quick snack herself before cleaning up a bit and went to bed. Seeing as John had trusted them, she left Isaac to sleep on the sofa while she slept upstairs. Once in the comfort of her room, she had thought about drinking some of Nik or Elijah's blood that she had for emergencies. But when she checked her mini fridge, she realized that Scott and Stiles had emptied her last four remaining vials down her throat which meant that she had a few weeks before it cleared out of her system.

Noticing that the house was quieter than normal, especially with Stiles and Isaac there, Avery decides to go and investigate. As she sleepily stumbles by her brother's room, she notices that the room is empty.

"Stiles?" She calls out, yawning as she makes her way to the top of the stairs. "Stiles!" She tries again.

Footsteps scramble from the kitchen area before Isaac pops his head out. "Oh, uh, Stiles left already." He sheepishly grins at her.

"Already? What he'd leave in?" Avery frowns.

"Yeah. He woke up earlier, dressed, and took off. One of your Dad's deputies dropped off his jeep."

"Oh. Okay." Avery's frown deepens before she narrows her eyes at Isaac who's fighting a smile as he looks at her pajamas. "Oh for Christ's sake, Finding Nemo is for all ages." She scowls and crosses her arms over her chest. Isaac holds his hand up, feigning innocence and Avery grins before it slowly falls until she's frowning once more. Stiles leaving, especially without waking her or leaving a note with Isaac was not something Stiles would have done. Especially after everything they've been through these past couple of days.

"Avery?" Isaac fidgets at the bottom step when he sees Avery zone out. "You okay?"

Shaking her head clear, Avery manages a smile for him. "Uh, yeah, I'm good. I just- I.." She trails off with a sigh and now Isaac looks slightly worried. "I'm sorry." She suddenly apologies. "But, uh, can you get to school on your own?" Isaac's brows now furrow as he waits for her to explain. "It's just.. Stiles. I need to talk to Scott and ask him a few things about what to expect now but I need to do it privately." She grimaces.

Understanding dawns on the teen werewolf and he slowly nods. "Okay, yeah, the school isn't that far from here." Avery sighs out in relief and Isaac easily takes the stairs two at time until he reaches her. He wraps her in a loose hug, rubbing his cheek atop her head. "Don't take too long, yeah?"

She looks up at him with an impish grin, wrinkling her nose and giggling when he continues to rub his cheek along her forehead and cheeks. As he moves in for a kiss, Avery turns her head at the last second and he catches her cheek. When she meets his sad eyes and pout, she grins. "Morning breath." She gives the excuse as to why she turned away.

Isaac rolls his eyes and when Avery doesn't expect it, he quickly pecks her lips. "Whatever, it's not that bad." He chuckles. "I'll see you at school."

"See you." She mutters as Isaac slips into his shoes and walks out the front door.

Giving herself a moment to breathe, Avery collects herself before heading back to her room to pick out some under garments so she can shower. She still has a good hour and half before she has to be at school and she knows that Scott likes to leave his house at the last minute so she can take her time in the shower and picking out clothes.

After gathering a towel from the linen closet, Avery locks herself in the bathroom and runs the hot water. She gets the bathroom nice and steamy before she steps into the shower, letting the hot water burn her skin red. In a rush to hurry and get into bed the night before, she had rushed cleaning up in the bathroom with warm water so the scalding hot shower now is very welcome.

She slowly scrubs in shampoo to clean out any dirt and blood from her hair and scalp before rinsing it all out and moving on to conditioner. She lets the conditioner sit in her hair while she does a quick facial in the shower before rinsing her hair clean and then her face. She makes a quick work of shaving before gently washing over her body because of bruises and cuts, and soon finds herself turning off the water and towel drying off.

Picking up her hair dryer, she takes it with her to her room after pulling on her undergarments and wrapping her hair up in her towel. When she's in her room, she plugs in the dryer and removes the towel from her hair before drying it so it's barely even damp.

As Avery steps up to her closet and throws open the door, she glances down at her nearly bare form before deciding that today was definitely a pants day. Her eyes land on a pair of gray slim fit jeans with stars printed all over the place and after easily sliding those over her legs, she reaches for the first shirt her hand is closest to. Without looking at what was on front, she pulls it on over her head and walks over to her dresser for accessories.

When her eyes catch sight of her reflection, she snorts at the words on her shirt,  _The War Is Over,_ and can't help but think how true that is. The sight of the printed dove in the middle of the shirt has her thinking of peace so she searches through her jewelry box for a sterling silver peace sign ring. After slipping the ring on her index finger, she finds a black friendship bracelet that also has a peace symbol and slips that around her wrist.

She's slipping on a pair of gray converse when her eyes land on a bruise around her right wrist. Frowning, she studies her wrist before she finds more bruises splayed up and down both her arms and it's when that she checks out her entire outfit in the body length mirror that she realizes she's going to either need a jacket or change into a long sleeved shirt. Once back at her closet again, she finds her white and black panda hoodie that she had yet to wear while in Beacon Hills.

With a shrug, Avery pulls the hoodie on over her head, pulling her hair out to hang over the front of her shoulders so the curtain of hair can block most of the damage done to her throat.

After seeing that she's wasted enough time getting dressed, Avery quickly locates her backpack before rushing downstairs to pick out her helmet from the downstairs closet. Picking up her motorcycle's key from the table by the front door, she hurriedly makes her way outside and up on her bike.

..

..

The drive to Scott's is less than three minutes and when she's pulling up, Scott's on the verge of pulling out of his driveway until he spots Avery.

Pulling off his own helmet, Scott smiles at her when she pulls up to his side and pulls off her own helmet. "Hey, Scrappy. What are you doing here?"

"Hey, Scooby." She grins back. "I, uh, I have something to tell you but I also need to talk to you about something. Do you mind?"

"No, it's fine." He smirks. "But can we talk once we get to school? Mom said that saving the town is no excuse to miss out on my education."

"Sounds like Dad." She snorts. "How's she holding up?"

"Better than the last time she was held against her will. The first time, she was held against her will in my room but Gerard had the Kanima choking her in mid-air."

"Ouch."

"Yeah. That and she's having a ball ignoring my Dad's attempts to patch things up between them. We don't want him in our life but he's being stubborn at the moment."

It's then that Avery notices a dark SUV sitting by the curb in front of the McCall household. "That blows." She finally says as they sit there on their bikes. After a moment of silence and zoning out, Avery snaps back to reality. "Well, I guess we can talk in the parking lot." She caves. "Come on, lets go."

Scott's grin falters but he eventually nods. Both teens pull their helmets back on before revving their engines and riding side-by-side to school. There's not much traffic so they get there fairly easy and when they do, Avery notices that all her friends showed up to school as well.

Allison and Lydia's cars are both in the parking lot as well as two identical motorcycles that could only belong to Ethan and Aiden. She's surprised at how fast the twins bounced back and even more surprised that they decided to stick around after everything that went down.

As they park and turn off their bikes, Avery catches Scott nodding towards something behind her. When Avery pulls off her helmet, she turns to look and finds her brother's jeep in the lot as well.

"Stiles is already here?"

"I guess so." She mumbles before turning back to Scott.

"Okay, well, what did you need to tell me?"

When Avery turns back around, she glances quickly around them to make sure no-one they know is listening in. When they aren't, she blurts out, "Derek's left town. Cora, too."

Scott's eyes bulge at her confession. "W-what? Are you sure?"

"Yeah." She nods. "They told me personally last night they were leaving. Derek said they'd be back but I don't know. Do you think he'll come back?"

Scott takes a moment to think about his answer before shrugging. "Honestly? I don't know if he'll ever come back." He tells Avery and she deflates just a little.

"That's what I'm afraid of."

"If it makes you feel any better, part of me hopes so-" Scott feebly grins at her since he realizes how the Hales' departure is making her feel. "-but another part of me hopes that maybe they'll be okay wherever they end up." Avery sighs, kicking the pebbled rocks in the parking lot as she and Scott start walking towards the front of the school. When she doesn't say anything, Scott takes a second to study her and realizes that she has more to say but is holding back. "Is that all you wanted to speak about? You seem like you had more to say back at my house."

Avery's head whips in his direction, eyes wide at being caught. Before they can enter the school, she groans and stomps to the side by the front entrance and gestures for Scott to follow. Once more, she checks for prying eyes before speaking. "It's Stiles." She mutters as she avoids eye contact. "I can't stop thinking about the consequences for him, you, and Allison- and this morning he just up and left the house without telling me or speaking to Isaac. I-" She trails off with a frown and finally decides to meet Scott's gaze. "-I'm worried that he's already feeling the effects and I don't know how to help him. What am I supposed to do?"

Scott doesn't say anything for a moment and Avery's heart sinks. And then it sinks even more when Scott sighs and ruffles his own hair. "I felt it once I woke up this morning. Just like Deaton said we would." He admits to her and it takes everything in Avery to not cry. "If I felt it, I'm sure Stiles and Allison feel it too. It makes me think about that quote Jennifer used when she started her first class 'cause when I felt it, it felt like I was looking into the heart of an immense darkness."

Avery's eyes well up with tears before she sniffles and wipes at her eyes with her sleeves. "So what are you going to do? There has to be something to chase the darkness away."

Scott slowly grins at her before moving to stand side-by-side with her and drapes an arm around her shoulders. "There is. I just gotta look for my friends."

Avery snorts at how cheesy it sounds but she realizes that he's being serious. Her presence- everyone else's presence is what is going to chase the darkness away.

Scott finally decides to lead them inside, stopping just on the inside as he inspects the hallway. Avery closely watches him, watching as his grin gets a little bigger. When she turns to see what he's looking at, she finds that he's looking at Lydia and Aiden who are standing way too close to each other by the lockers though they look comfortable with one another. Scott's gaze turns to the right side of the hall, his grin widening even more and when Avery follows his gaze- it's Danny and Ethan who are holding hands and chatting to each other with smiles on their faces.

Towards the end of the hall at the stairs, Avery spots Isaac and Allison walking down. They're both talking to each other, laughing at one point before the two of them spot Scott and Avery watching them. Allison gives Scott a radiant smile, one that Scott returns, and Isaac is just smiling at Avery.

"Go." Scott laughs and nudges her forward. "I'll see you later in class."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." Scott says just as Stiles appears from behind him, clapping him on the shoulders.

He startles Scott but when Scott sees who it is, he chuckles and nods at his best friend. Avery grins at her brother, Stiles feebly grinning at her. "Hey, Avs."

"Stiles." She greets.

As the seconds tick by, she watches as Stiles' grin falters until he looks like he has no care in the world. Avery starts to frown herself but before she can say anything, she feels her hood being tugged on until it's pulled on over her head. With a confused frown, she looks up only to find Scott and Stiles smiling wide and chuckling at her.

"What?"

"Cute ears." Stiles teases her.

"Oh my god." Allison suddenly squeals from behind her. "I so want your hoodie."

"What are you talking about?" Avery mutters as she angles her body so her gaze darts back and forth between her twin and Allison.

Isaac suddenly laughs before he tugs on something on her hood. "Your hoodie." He says. "They have panda ears."

Avery's cheeks burn red. She had completely forgot that the hoodie came equipped with ears and is now fiercely regretting wearing this particular hoodie to school. Booming laughter suddenly catches her off guard and when she turns, Avery finds both Scott and Isaac laughing and smiling wide. When Allison soon joins in with her muffled giggles, Avery can't help but think that Scott was right.

If they were going to get through this- this darkness around their heart- they were going to need their friends.

..

..

The school day seemed to pass by in a sluggish manner.

After first period whenever Avery ran into her friends in between classes, she could see the darkness take hold once more. It happened slowly but it was detectable in the way their grins slowly faded from their faces and the way they withdrew into themselves when they didn't have classes together.

P.E didn't help much seeing as Coach had them running again. There wasn't a chance to talk to anyone since Finstock had them running up until the minute before the class bell and then by the time everyone had gathered in the locker room, everyone was tired and annoyed and sweaty.

During lunchtime, it took the combined effort of Avery, Isaac, and Lydia to bring the smiles and laughs back. And of course, that was made easier by Avery's adorable hoodie and after taking several pictures in it, she managed to wrangle Allison into it so the teen would smile whenever the others weren't around. Avery had pulled Scott aside and asked whether or not they should tell the others about Derek and Cora.

When they decided to tell them- Allison was the only one who didn't really care about the news. Isaac, Stiles, and Lydia looked a bit crestfallen that Derek and Cora decided to leave without telling anyone other than Avery.

When Aiden and Ethan noticed the difference in Allison, Scott, and Stiles- they grew curious enough to have Lydia explain it to them when they kept pestering her. Afterward, they kept their distance from the group until the battle they had just won wasn't as fresh on their minds.

During sixth period, everyone waited with bated breath to see their replacement teacher. And three minutes after the bell rang, their curiosity was put to rest when an elderly man nearly hobbled in and took a seat at the front desk. When the old man- who had a severe receding salt-n-pepper hairline- started hacking and wheezing into a handkerchief, nearly everyone in class shared a similar and eerie grin.

English class for now was going to be a piece of cake.

The last class of the day was just as sluggish as every other class. And by the end of the day, Avery was ready to get home, do whatever homework she had, prepare dinner, and go with Stiles to pick up their Dad from the Hospital.

..

..

Once home- Avery gladly throws her backpack on the floor of her room and plops down face first on her bed. The minute the school day had ended- Stiles fled the parking lot without a word, Scott groaned then sighed and said he'd go after him, Allison was tired and just wanted to go straight home, Lydia found herself being occupied by both Aiden and Ethan who didn't know what to do now that they were on their own, and Isaac grew quiet.

When asked what his deal was, Isaac nervously replied that he wanted to make a stop at Derek's vacant loft for something he possibly might have left there. Avery seemed skeptical of his answer but when she remembered his crestfallen expression at the lunch table, she dropped it and let him do what he had to do. After asking him if he wanted a ride, and Isaac declining, he gave her a quick kiss before running off with word that he'd call later.

So as Avery got a moments rest, she closed her eyes for a few minutes before she got an early start on her homework that wouldn't be due 'til Monday morning. Considering it was Friday, she still had time but she wanted it out of the way as soon as possible. Closing her eyes, she sighed contently and started to count numbers in her head.

..

..

The sound of a door shutting louder than a normal push was what woke Avery. There's a moment of silence before footsteps stomping up the stairs make her more alert. After pushing herself up and turning over, Avery finds her cellphone to check the time.

She'd been asleep for two hours.

As the footsteps got louder and closer, Avery rubs the sleep out of her eyes and sits up. "Stiles?"

The footsteps stop then start again and Stiles sticks his head in the doorway. "What?"

Had Avery been more alert, she would've glared at him for being so rash with just one word. Instead, her eyebrows furrow in confusion at her twin's attitude. "What crawled up your ass?"

Stiles clenches his jaw while subtly rolling his eyes and it's then that Avery notices the paleness of him. She had seen him not even five hours ago and already, it seems like his mood turned dark. Without uttering a word, he disappears from sight but Avery isn't about to let it go.

"No, hold up! What happened?" She calls out as she hurries after him. "Why are you in such a bad mood? You were fine just-"

"Avery!" Stiles sighs with a grunt. "Stop talking. Just leave it alone."

"No, I will not leave it alone." She grits out through clenched teeth as she follows him downstairs now. "This darkness crap is taking ahold of you rather quickly. More quickly than what it did to Scott and Allison at school. What's going on with you?"

"Nothing!" He shouts. "Everything's the same. Deaton warned us about this so it shouldn't come as a surprise to you! Just.. leave me alone."

"I will not leave you alone!" She yells right back, tears filling her eyes. "You're my brother, Stiles. My twin and I'll be there for you every step of the way but you can't lash out at me. At any of us. You have to let us be there-"

"I don't have to do anything."

Avery gapes, reeling back at the sudden coldness in his voice. Steeling herself, Avery stood taller as the tears silently fell from her eyes. "That's right, you  _don't_  have to anything." She tells him with hardly any emotion at all. "You  _need_ to."

Stiles holds Avery's gaze before the fight suddenly drains from him. Letting his shoulders slump and his head hang, he sighs. "Avery-"

"No. You listen." She cuts him off, the fire igniting in her eyes. "Yes, Deaton warned us but you can't let it rule you. You can't push us away." She sniffles before wiping at her eyes. "Your friends, your  _pack_ is what's going to keep you, Allison, and Scott alive. You can't let the darkness consume you because once you do, you won't come back from it." Stiles goes quiet, his gaze staring straight at her. "And if you think I'm annoying right now, how do you think Dad is going to be? He's going to be much more pushier than I am."

"No." Stiles immediately shakes his head. "No, Avs, you can't tell him. If he finds out, it'll crush him." He says and now Avery can see some emotion come back to life within her brother. Panic. "If Dad finds out that I basically killed myself for him, he'll hover twenty-four-seven."

"Then what do you suggest we do?"

Stiles' eyes dart back and forth, focusing on nothing as he comes up with a plan. "W-we tell him that the others and I were put under hypnosis. That Deaton put us in a trance but we leave out the part where we were held under water to do so."

"Stiles.." Avery sighs. "Dad wants the full story. He wants to know everything."

"If we can't tell him you killed Jennifer then we can't tell him that Scott, Allison, and I were held under water until we basically died."

Anger suddenly swells within her though she knows her brother made a fair point but she can't help feeling angry. He can see it too, the anger filling his sister but he holds his ground. The second Avery opens her mouth to argue, the front door opens causing the two teens to freeze and tense.

" _Kids? You home?_ "

" _Dad?"_ Avery and Stiles mouth at one another, eyes both widening before Avery shakily calls out to him. When John steps into the kitchen where his kids are, he smiles at them with a sigh.

"W-what are you doing home?" Avery asks as she moves forward to gently hug him. "We were supposed to pick you up later?"

"Yeah, well, they let me out early." John shrugs. "I had one of the deputies bring me home."

The arm closest to John's wound is in a sling and the man looks well rested as he smiles at his children. Avery returns the smile and Stiles forces his though they all know it's forced. The three lapse into a silence, no-one knowing what to say and Avery starts to fidget.

"Dinner! I-I can attempt to make dinner." She babbles. Stiles rolls his eyes while John just snorts. "Or not." She frowns at their reactions. "We can order in?"

John perks up at the idea while Stiles just shrugs. "Whatever. I'll be in my room. Call me down when it gets here."

Stiles walks around his Dad and sister, heading for the stairs only to disappear into his room. When John turns his questioning gaze on Avery, her smile falters. "He's just tired." She easily lies for him while rubbing at her eyes. "We're both tired and going back to school so soon wasn't easy."

John silently curses. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have sent you back. I should have just waited until after the weekend."

"It's fine." Avery assures him with a grin. "Everyone else was there so it was okay.. it was just tiring."

"I'm sure it was, kiddo."

The moment John wraps his free arm around his daughter's shoulders, Avery slumps into him with sigh and weakly hugs him around the waist. For a second, John feels guilty for sending them to school though he's not sure exactly what the both of them went through that has them so worn out.

"Tell you what," He murmurs. "-you order chinese food and we can put off our talk until the weekend."

"Deal." Avery immediately accepts as she picks out her cellphone and dials the number for the nearest chinese delivery place.

..

..

After a quiet, yet tense dinner where Avery had to slightly lie about Stiles behavior being because he was exhausted, Avery cleaned up the kitchen of their take-out containers before going up to bed. John had decided to stay up and watch a bit of TV in his own living room since he was tired of being in a bed and Avery left him to do whatever he pleased.

With the way Stiles had been behaving, she was surprised to find him in her room but not so much when it appeared that he was already snoring as he was sprawled on his stomach on the left side of her bed. Realizing that this was her brother reaching out and not pushing her away, she allowed herself a moment to smile before gathering up some pajamas for a quick shower.

And by the time she had gotten out of the shower with her hair mostly dry, she managed to squeeze in on the right side of her bed by curling in on herself with her back against her brother's side.

Which is how their Dad found them the following morning.

"Kids." John fought a smile at the sight of his teen twins sharing the same bed. When they didn't move a muscle, he raised his voice. "Kids!"

Stiles jerked awake, pushing himself up as if he were ready to do some push-ups before flailing at not recognizing his surroundings and falling into the small gap between Avery's bed and wall. At his pained impact, Avery groaned and burrowed further into her comforter before shoving her head under the pillow.

John rolled his eyes at his daughter's antics before marching forward and yanking her source of warmth from her. At her shriek of annoyance, and the cool air hitting her skin, Avery jerks awake just as Stiles peers over the side of the bed.

"Don't give me that look." John snorts as Avery tries her best to glare at him. "I need the both of you downstairs and outside. There seems to be a generously over-sized wrapped present sitting on the lawn that's addressed to the both of you."

Stiles' interest is now piqued whereas Avery grumbles about needing more sleep. Just as she lets herself fall back into her pillows, Stiles is catapulting himself over the corner of her bed while wrapping his hand around one of her ankles. "Come on, Beetlejuice, lets go see what we got." He says as he drags her halfway off the bed before she could fall.

"Don't call me that!" She kicks out at him, missing when he jumps away, and self-consciously pulls on the hem of her black and white striped sleep shorts. John snorts when he catches on to the reference before letting his son out of the room and waiting for Avery to get up. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming." She mumbles as she stands, raising her hands high up above her head in a full body stretch before readjusting her black tank-top. "Lets go before Stiles opens it without me."

John follows Avery down the stairs and outside to where Stiles is circling the ginormous box while scratching the back of his head. It's a plain white box with a giant red bow sitting atop, and in bold block letters, it simply states  _Avery and Stiles Stilinski_. There's no note- nothing that says who it's from.

Stiles and Avery glance at one another before shrugging and placing their hands on the box. It seems hollow and flimsy- easily lift-able- so with each teen grabbing a corner in the front and lifting, they let the flimsy hollowed box fall backward.

There's a moment of silence as the three Stilinski's just stare at the two identical black Kawasaki sport bikes before Avery starts jumping up and down squealing. Stiles just gapes when his mind processes that this was addressed to  _him_  and his twin while John audibly groans and pinches the bridge of his nose.

"Would someone like to tell me why there are two identical motorcycles on my front lawn?" John grumbles.

Avery and Stiles both whirl around to face their Dad- Stiles' mouth dropping open even more as Avery's eyes widen at the now two figures standing behind their father. The two impeccably dressed figures standing behind their Dad- one with a dimpled smirk and the other looking stoic as ever though you could clearly read the amusement in his eyes.

"I believe that would be my brother's doing, Mr. Stilinski." A heavily accented British voice drawls.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **So the Originals are finally in town :) Avery's outfits can be found[HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/war_is_over_we_might/set?id=103097071) and the twins' motorcycles look like [THIS](http://i40.tinypic.com/2nutb2q.jpg).**


	19. Chapter 19

 

_**Previously on 'We Might Fall'..** _

_There's a moment of silence as the three Stilinski's just stare at the two identical black Kawasaki sport bikes before Avery starts jumping up and down squealing. Stiles just gapes when his mind processes that this was addressed to him and his twin while John audibly groans and pinches the bridge of his nose._

" _Would someone like to tell me why there are two identical motorcycles on my front lawn?" John grumbles._

_Avery and Stiles both whirl around to face their Dad- Stiles' mouth dropping open even more as Avery's eyes widen at the now two figures standing behind their father. The two impeccably dressed figures standing behind their Dad- one with a dimpled smirk and the other looking stoic as ever though you could clearly read the amusement in his eyes._

" _I believe that would be my brother's doing, Mr. Stilinski." A heavily accented British voice drawls._

_.._

_.._

"Jesus!" John yelps as he whirls around to face the men standing behind him.

Nik's smirk widens even more as he flicks his gaze over to John who has his hand held over his heart. Elijah just stands there, hands clasped together in front of him as he slowly grins at the family standing before him. True to the pictures Avery had showed them- Nik stands there in a dark gray henley with dark-washed jeans and boots as Elijah stands there in a business suit and fancy black glossy shoes.

"Mr. Stilinski," The man in the business suit steps forward, the one Avery always referred to as Elijah. "-it's a pleasure to finally meet you. I'm Elijah Reynolds."

Elijah holds his hand out for John to shake but it seems that everyone is still frozen in their shock. Elijah just lets his hand hang there and when John finally snaps out of it, and raises his own hand to shake- Avery squeals and jumps up and down in place before launching herself at the two Originals.

Elijah and Nik grin, opening their arms up for a hug only for Avery to jump and wrap an arm around each of their necks as she brings them down to her level in a double hug. "Oh my god! You guys are here!" She squeals in delight- Stiles' amused chuckles from behind her only adding on to her excitement seeing as he woke up in a good mood. As Nik's deep amused chuckles sound in her ear, Avery's smile instantly drops as she pushes herself away with a horrified expression. "Oh my god, you guys are  _here_!"

At his sister's horrified expression, Stiles guffaws and instead of rounding on him and punching him for laughing at her, Aver slowly slinks behind him to use as a human shield. Elijah's lips twitch in amusement and Nik smirks playfully at her.

"It's okay, Avery. I'm not mad." Nik assures her.

From behind Stiles, Avery peeks over his shoulder. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." He rolls his eyes. "I wouldn't have bought you or your twin a gift if I had been angry with you."

Avery sighs in relief as she comes out from behind Stiles to stand next to him. When she looks up at him, she sees Stiles trying to fight off a smile and rolls her eyes. "Not that we don't appreciate it but why did you buy us identical motorcycles?"

"Yeah." John finally speaks with dignity. "Would you like to explain why you bought my teen twins motorcycles?" He says as he crosses his arms and huffs.

Stiles and Avery find their Dad's antics quite funny as do Elijah and Nik though they don't show it. "I'm terribly sorry." Elijah speaks first. "I told my reckless brother he should have asked you first but as you can see, he went against my wishes." He says with a shake of his head. "He's a bit of a  _shoot first, ask questions later_  kind of man."

Avery snorts. "More like  _rip out your heart first, ask questions later_ type of guy."

Elijah and Nik both smirk at her words while Stiles' eyes go wide and round, and John rounds on his daughter. "What?! What did you just say?" He frantically asks. After everything he's been through and seen, he's not about to let things fly over his head anymore.

When she notices the attention is now on her, Avery bites the bottom corner of her lip. "So, I guess we should have that talk now, huh?"

"You're damn right we are." John nods though he casts a suspicious glance towards the two brothers who his daughter was taken in by. "But maybe we should save that for when we don't have company."

Stiles just rolls his eyes though he doesn't let his Dad see. If his Dad knew what he knew, he wouldn't care what he let slipped.

"Oh and to answer your question," Nik suddenly pipes up. "-the bikes are for the two of you in case you ever find yourself in a sticky situation again. We can't have some creature mauling you to death just because you didn't have any mode of transportation to get you away." He drawls.

Now it's time for John to go wide-eyed as his gaze darts back and forth between Nik, Elijah, and Avery. "Does he- do they  _know?_ "

"Of course they know." Stiles finally sighs. "Elijah's a vampire and Nik's the werewolf-slash-vampire hybrid. Both the first of their kind."

John slowly went red in the face, eyes bulging even more as his jaw went slack before he gritted his teeth together. Turning his attention to Avery and pointing his pointer finger at her, Avery internally cringed as she shrugs innocently. "Surprise?"

"You. Inside. Now."

"But-"

"No buts, young lady."

"Oh, come on!" Avery whines. "You can't be mad at me! I told you we were going to tell you everything today." She continues to whine as she marches towards the front door.

Elijah was smart to keep his mouth closed while Nik snickered at Avery's misfortune. When John turned his glare on him, he too shrugged innocently, and it was Stiles who came to Avery's aide. "She has a point, Dad. There's no use in getting mad." He shrugged nonchalantly. "And besides, these are the dudes that took her in after she- after her accident." He corrected as he shook his head clear.

Both Elijah and Nik caught the slip of his tongue and stared at him curiously before turning to Avery who had stopped in the doorway to watch them. John sighs audibly, pinching the bridge of his nose as he collects himself. "Fine. Let us all go inside so we can finally have the discussion that is long overdue."

Being too far away to actually hear since she's human, Avery didn't hear a word her brother or Dad said but when she sees them walking towards her, she beams. And when they get to the front door, Avery's lips twitch in amusement when Elijah and Nik can't enter after her brother and Dad.

"Uh, Dad, you're going to need to invite them in." She tells him instead of inviting them in herself.

John's brows furrow in confusion. "Why? Most people just walk in the door."

"Vampires, remember?" She grins.

John's brows furrow even further. "That part of the myth is real?" At their nods, he frowns. "And the sun? We were just standing outside."

"Werewolf lineage." Nik smirks. "One of the perks of being half-and-half is that the sun doesn't bother me."

"And myself," Elijah says. "-I have a piece of jewelry that has been spelled by a witch to let me walk in the daylight." As one, John and Stiles' gaze falls to Elijah's hands. "But I keep it well hidden on myself so my attackers don't take it from me."

"Yeah, I lived with him for two years and he still wouldn't tell me what it was." Avery sidles up to her Dad with a roll of her eyes.

"That's because you and Nik would make it a game to strand me outside after taking it away from me and let me burn for your amusement."

"What?!" Avery yelps. "I would never."

"You so would." John snorts which causes Elijah and Nik to grin. "If it sounds like something Stiles would do, you'd do it as well."

Avery and Stiles share of look of contemplation before laughing and agreeing with his words. "You make a fair point."

John chuckles at his daughter before giving Elijah and Nik his attention. "Come on in."

..

..

As the five of them settle down in the living room- Avery being stuck between Elijah and Nik on the couch as John sits opposite them to study them, Stiles sits off to the side with his eyes darting back and forth between his Dad and sister in obvious amusement.

Elijah and Nik fearlessly meet John's gaze head on whereas Avery is nervously gulping and trying in vain to not bite her fingernails.

After a tense moment of silence, John clears his throat. "So let me get this straight." He sighs as he narrows his eyes on Elijah and Nik. "You are a vampire," He says at he points at Elijah before moving on to Nik. "-and you are both vampire and werewolf?" At their nods, John seems to tense up. "What were two very old men doing taking in a little girl? Why her?"

Avery's nervous tick of bouncing her knee suddenly ceases as her gaze snaps to meet Stiles. Both teens go wide-eyed before Avery gulps and looks to her Dad. "T-the accident, remember? They were just being gentlemen."

"Well while I'm glad they helped you, it still doesn't explain their actions." John shakes his head. If they were going to talk this out, he wanted  _all_  the answers. He didn't want to be tip-toed around. "There are hundreds, if not thousands, of children who don't have a great life. What made you stick out to them?"

Avery's leg immediately starts bouncing again and now she's chewing on the corner of her lip. She can practically feel the sweat beading at her hairline and her heart is already beating erratically so she's pretty sure Elijah and Nik are getting worked up because she's worked up. Her eyes meet Stiles'- Stiles' look full of pity seeing as he knows this story and while he knowing this story was hard enough, then John finding out right now was going to be heartbreaking- depending on his reaction.

"I-"

"Mr. Stilinski," Elijah immediately cuts in, his hand falling on Avery's knee to keep it from bouncing as he leans forward so the attention is on him. "-I know you want answers and I'm sure your daughter is going to give them but before she does, I just want you make sure you're ready to know. This story is hard for one to keep to themselves let alone letting her family know about it. And from the look your son is casting his sister, I'm pretty sure he already knows. So I must make sure, are you ready to know?"

John gulps, this day already turning out to be something he hadn't anticipated. He has no idea what's going on but after Elijah's words sink in, he has a feeling that this is going to change the way he sees things. And after looking at his son who's clenching his jaw and fighting back tears while throwing a pitying glance at his sister, he knows it's something that every Father fears.

"Tell me." He deadpans.

"Very well." Elijah nods before leaning back to give Avery the floor once more.

John glances at his daughter and he can see her bottom lip trembling. Her eyes are glossy and full of tears but none fall. "I-" She gasps out. "It was my thirteenth birthday and I-"

"She was abused." Nik bluntly states. At the pace Avery was going, she was only setting herself up for a panic attack so it was in everyone's best interest if someone else took over.

John's eyes widen in shock, his jaw falling open at Nik's words. He watched as his daughter seemed to slump in on herself, picking up her feet on the sofa between the two brothers and hugging her legs while she hid her face behind her knees.

She cries softly as she listens to Nik tell her father about how they found her beaten and bloodied with her clothes ripped and strewn about a darkened alley. She listens to him tell her father about how he and Elijah were disgusted that a human could do that to another human being, let alone a child, and that they pitied her greatly in that moment. She listens to him tell of how they gave her a choice and how she chose to live, and how they kept an eye on her afterward once they got her to the hospital.

Elijah took over next for his brother while Nik wrapped an arm around Avery's shoulders and filled in John that afterward, they saw how she was treated by her family. When they saw that the family didn't know much about Avery's history, they did a bit of digging on their own and found out she was adopted. And then when the family continued to treat Avery with no respect, they took it upon themselves to give Avery an ultimatum: that she could stay with her current family but that they'd erase her memory of them ever saving her or she could leave with them where they'd give her the respect she deserved but she'd have a very strict schedule should she live with them.

Elijah admitted that when they found Avery, she reminded them of the little sister they once had and that was also part of the reason why they took her in and under their wing.

Elijah and Nik fell silent after that, Avery working on controlling her breathing. She's waiting for her Dad to lash out- to yell or do something but he's quiet as well. But the moment she makes up her mind to pick up her head and peer over at her Dad, the sudden _thwack!_ of a fist on the wooden coffee table makes her flinch in fright.

Avery's head snaps up, heart pounding in her ears as her eyes zero in on her Dad who's now pacing right before her eyes. He looks pissed- scratch that- he looks  _livid_  with his hands balled into fists at his sides. "Are you telling me.. that my baby girl was-" He cuts himself off, a choked sob filling the air before he shakes his head clear as if denying it. When Avery chances a look at Stiles, he too is watching their Dad with tears in his eyes.

"Yes." Elijah answers anyway. "I'm terribly sorry it happened to your daughter, sir."

John whines from the back of his throat before furiously wiping beneath his eyes. Sniffling, John stops pacing and faces Avery. With a heartbroken smile, he opens up in arms as an invite and Avery doesn't think twice about climbing to her feet and practically tackling her dad in a hug. The moment Avery's face is buried against her Dad's chest and John has his arms wrapped tightly around her, Avery breaks down crying as John holds his cries in. All he cares about now is that his daughter is safe in his arms- in his home and nothing or no-one is ever going to hurt her again.

Before he can voice any of these thoughts, the front door is kicked open with a loud bang followed by a ferocious growl.

"Holy shit!" Stiles yelps just as John squeezes Avery tighter as if protecting her.

Nik's answering growl and snarl is enough to send shivers up and down the Stilinski's spine, and Avery finally manages to turn around in John's embrace to see what's going on. And when she sees the so-called threat, she immediately throws herself between everyone much to John's horrified awe.

Nik is snarling at the threat in all his fangy glory and raised black veins beneath his glowing yellow eyes while Scott snarls right back. Scott has a mouth full of fang, red alpha eyes shining bright and his face has shifted to that of his inner wolf.

John and Stiles are too stunned to say anything while Elijah watches on with poise. The moment Scott and Nik take a step towards one another, Avery thrusts her palms out to catch the both of them by their chests.

"Stop it!" She yells at them. "Put the fangs away, Nik! And Scooby," She rounds on him. "-get your temper in check. We're all family here."

And just like someone hit a switch, both of their visages fade away and they're left with human Scott who looks a bit ashamed and human Nik who looks curious.

"Aw, Avs, did you really have to introduce me as Scooby?"

"Yep." She popped the 'p' with a shaky grin before wiping her face clean. "I had to calm you down somehow."

Scott grinned and then frowned at her when he took in the tears and the slightly puffy eyes. "Uh, Scott, not that I'm happy you came to the rescue but why exactly did you storm in here all werewolf-y?" Stiles pipes up.

Scott turned sheepish under everyone's gaze which made Elijah and Nik grin. Now they knew why he had been dubbed Scooby- he looked like puppy. "I, uh, I felt Avery's distress." He admits to them while averting his gaze. "My chest- it felt like," He trails off as he tried to think of how to phrase it. "-you know that sensation you get when your foot falls asleep?" Avery and Stiles nod in confusion. "Like that! Only it hurt and I tried to ignore it but then I started to panic only I realized it wasn't  _me_  panicking, and then Avery's face just flashed in my mind and I thought she was in trouble."

"So you came running?" John mused.

"Yes, sir."

"Good. It's nice to know my daughter's being taken care of."

"Dad." Avery groaned in embarrassment.

John's lips twitch in amusement while Scott scoots off to the side with Stiles and everyone retook their seat. "Well, now that that's out of the way and we've all calmed down- I have one question." Nik and Elijah gesture for John to continue. "Did they ever catch the son of a bitch who-" He trailed off, eyes darting to Scott who's brows furrowed in confusion when everyone looked towards him.

"He knows." Avery waved off the sudden silence. "Long story short- the Darach got into all the werewolves head when we stayed at that creepy motel and Scott tried to commit suicide. We shared crappy stories and Stiles talked Scott down."

John gaped, it having been the first time he heard that story while Nik narrowed his eyes on Avery. "It seems like you skipped that little detail when you emailed us."

Avery shrugged. "Our night at the motel wasn't as important as everything else."

"So Scott becoming an alpha wasn't important?" Elijah quirked an eyebrow at her. "Last we knew, one Derek Hale was Beacon Hills' current alpha."

"You didn't tell them?!" Stiles squeaked. "What the hell did you write to them then?"

"I'm sorry." Avery chuckled. "Our resident alpha situation didn't seem relevant since I didn't expect anyone to visit. And yeah, Scott's the alpha now and Derek's back to a beta. He sacrificed his alpha powers to save Cora."

"Wait, Cora?" John then asked.

"Derek's little sister." Avery answered.

"His little sister?" John's eyebrows raised. "I thought his entire family sans Laura died in the fire?"

"So did he." Stiles mumbled.

John sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Is there anything else I don't know?"

"Loads." Stiles admitted. "Though I believe you asked a question that has yet to be answered." He turned to Elijah and Nik. "What happened to the guy that abused my sister?"

Both Originals turned to Avery who shrugged with a grin. "Might as well tell them. We're about to come clean to my Dad about everything and I'm pretty sure there's going to be a lot of w-t-f moments."

Scott and Stiles leaned forward in interest now and Nik smugly smirked. "I chased the imbecile down and tore his heart from his chest."

At the visible paling of John, Stiles, and Scott's face- Avery laughs. "Aren't you glad they're on our side?!"

After that, Stiles and Scott fill in John everything he's missed. Everything starting from the night Scott was bitten up until a couple of nights ago.

John takes it all in stride, muttering curses beneath his breath. Stiles, Avery, and Scott expected Mr. Stilinski to fly off the handle and yell at them for being so careless with their lives but he didn't. He was surprisingly calm though you could see the anger within him when he finally found out the truth of Stiles' beat down- that it wasn't the losing lacrosse team like Stiles had said but Gerard Argent. And lets just say that John was quite smug when Scott spun his tale of poisoning Gerard and quite bummed to learn that Gerard was still alive even though he lived in pain every day.

When they caught up to the current situation with Ms. Blake and Scott retold the story of how she was taken down- purposely saying again that it was Deucalion who killed her and not Avery- Elijah marveled at Scott when he found out this teenager was a true alpha. After Elijah got over his moment of fangirling, Nik asked what had become of the so-called teachers body and if they needed help for cover stories.

Scott then shrugged, informing them all for the first time that Jennifer's body had disappeared. Avery and Stiles gulped, not liking that situation in the slightest but Scott assured them it was okay. If she did decide to come back somehow, she'd be easily taken care of now.

Stiles and Avery both seemed skeptical but John quickly turned his attention to the two Reynolds brothers. He really wanted to know more about the two oldest beings he ever met face to face.

..

..

With the Reynolds brothers telling some of their life story, it eventually led Scott calling his Mom to tell her that he'd be out all day and Avery texting Isaac, Allison, and Lydia that she was going to be busy so she was sorry if she didn't answer their texts throughout the day.

By the time Elijah and Nik got to the 1900s, the sun was long gone and Avery had ordered in numerous pizzas that she, Stiles, and Scott tore into while John ordered Thai for himself, Elijah, and Nik.

By the time the Originals finished with their tale, it was a little after midnight. Stiles and Scott were practically on their edge of their seats with their jaws open in awe at everything the brother's had been through. When they had gotten to the point of finding Avery, they skimmed over the details of her training and education that they provided her with, and John was more than a little impressed with how far his daughter had come.

All in all, John took to the knowledge of the supernatural realm- and just how invested his twin children were in it- with a calm ease.

A calm ease that Elijah picked up on.

"With all due respect, Mr. Stilinski-"

"John." Said man cut Elijah off. "I think we've earned the right to call each other by our first names."

"John." Elijah nodded his head in understanding. "With all due respect, John, may I ask  _why_ you're taking this so well? Most people would be in denial about the supernatural realm."

All eyes turned to John, especially those of the teens who had seemed engulfed with their phones. When he took in Avery and Stiles' calculating gaze, he sighs while rubbing at his forehead. "What do you know of your Mother's death?" He says before pointedly looking at Avery.

"N-not much." She says, eyes widening at the sudden turn of conversation. "Just that she was sick."

John nods and clears his throat. "The reason I believe so easily is because, well, I knew about something  _other_ existing. I just wasn't ready to believe it." He shrugs.

Stiles gapes. "What?! Explain. Please." He adds on when John levels him with a stare.

"There was a night.. eight years ago." John says. "The night my wife, Claudia, died." Scott's eyes widen as he glances at his two friends- both of whom have also gone wide-eyed though there's a look sympathy sketched into their features and shock. Scott knew that Mr. Stilinski never spoke of his wife so it was a shock to Stiles and himself. "It was the end of my shift and a call came in. There had been a pile up and a young woman- she was a teenager, actually- she was trapped under an overturned car. We had to wait for the paramedics; we were never getting her out. But I was able to hold her hand. She knew she was going to die." A sniffle cuts him off and he turns to find his daughter with tears in her eyes though she's not letting them fall. After giving Avery a moment, John turns back to the Reynolds brothers. "I just kept telling her  _'No, no, listen. The paramedics are on their way.'_ and I remember her hand suddenly gripped mine so tightly that I-" He trails off, his eyes staring at the floor as he recalled the memory. "-I literally thought she was going to break the bones."

"A werewolf?" Scott suddenly voices. "You met a werewolf before?"

John shakes his head. "No. She looked me in the eye and she said,  _'If you wanna be with her, go. Now.'_ And I knew she was talking about my wife. But then the other part of my brain, the one that looks for clues, for fingerprints, for logical connections- that part told me that there is no way that this girl could possibly know about Claudia. And so I stayed." John pauses once more in his story- just long enough to glance at his kids who are wiping away tears. "I stayed until the paramedics pulled her out. 'Til her heart stopped beating and they declared her dead.

When I finally got to the hospital, I saw Stiles sitting in the waiting room with his head in his hands. He was with Claudia when she died.. but I wasn't. I wasn't with her because I didn't believe. I just did not believe."

"And now you do." Nik drawled.

John nodded though it wasn't a question and cleared his throat to get rid of the lump that had suddenly formed. "My condolences." Elijah told him.

John gave him a feeble smile and the group then lapsed into a silence. When they can find no other topic to discuss and people start yawning, Scott asks Stiles for a ride home. Stiles agrees to take his friend and just as he begins his search for the jeep's keys, John turns to Avery.

"So now that you have yourself a new bike, what are you going to do with the green one?"

For a split second, Avery's brows furrow in confusion. And when the words click in her mind, she shrugs with a grin. "Probably give it to Scott if he wants it. He's the only other person who's licensed to drive one." When John rolls his eyes and Scott turns a hopeful look in her direction, she turns to Nik. "Is that okay if I give it away? You're the one who bought it for me."

"Do as you wish, little one." Nik smirks at her.

Scott beams while John looks apprehensive. "I don't think Melissa is going to like that."

"Probably not." Avery frowns. "But it'll be worth it to see Scott's dad have a conniption when he sees his son's upgrade."

"His dad?"

"Yeah." Avery grins while turning to Scott so he can explain the rest.

"Uh, my Dad is sticking around for a bit. Might as well piss him off and let him see that Stiles isn't the only Stilinski capable of getting under his skin."

John, Nik, and Elijah all snort in amusement. Stalling Stiles' search for his keys, Avery quickly runs up to her room before coming back down and tossing a key to Scott. "Ride like the wind, Bullseye!"

Scott laughs as his two friends follow him outside, followed by Elijah, Nik, and John. After saying a quick goodbye, Scott starts up the bike and heads for home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really sorry for any mistakes you find. I'm in a hurry because there's a family get-together happening and I'm supposed to be there. So yeah, if you find mistakes, tell me and I'll fix it when I can.
> 
> Also, as you can see(read), Scott sensing Avery's distress is because he now considers her Pack :)


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AUTHOR'S NOTE: Outfit can be found [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/past_meets_present_we_might/set?id=103675927).

 

Monday came around way too quickly.

Spending all day Saturday filling in John about everything he was kept in the dark about had took a lot out of all of them so come Sunday, John just wanted a day with his kids. So feeling like they owed it to him, Stiles and Avery texted their friends and allies telling them as such.

Allison, Lydia, and Scott were understanding but Isaac was a little wary and anxious just to see her. She promised to see him Monday at school and after a little more reassuring, Isaac caved and let her be. Nik and Elijah were easily swayed to not visit seeing as they had errands of their own to complete. They didn't go further into explanation about said errands which, of course, made Avery curious throughout the entire day.

Family time mainly consisted of lounging around in Pjs all day and eating junk food while talking about anything and everything that  _didn't_ involve the supernatural realm. John talked about work and how he wanted to get more days off, Avery spoke of the upcoming holidays and what they could do, and Stiles complained about the damage to his jeep and how long it was going to take him to save up the money to get it fixed.

Feeling a little bit bad for her brother, when no-one was paying her any attention, Avery texted Elijah and Nik for a favor. She asked them if they could get Stiles' jeep fixed for him, telling them that he had wrecked the front of it during Jennifer's chaos around town, and the brother's easily agreed.

After all, they had the money and were glad to spend it on whatever Avery wished.

So when Monday rolled around and John woke her up asking why there was a giant red ribbon on Stiles' jeep, Avery laughed about sneaky vampires and hybrids, and John just shook his head in amusement and went to go make breakfast.

Seeing as she took a shower the night before to prevent having to fight Stiles for the first hot shower, Avery easily breezed into the bathroom to brush her teeth and Stiles squawked from behind the shower curtain.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

"Brushing my teeth." Avery yawned as she stumbled up to the sink, grabbing the necessary supplies while keeping her eyes averted from the shower. "Don't mind me. Just keep doing whatever it is you're doing behind the curtain."

Stiles groans. "Avery.."

"Just chill." She laughs with a mouth full of toothpaste. "I'm almost done."

As Stiles grumbles about the lack of privacy in their home, Avery just snorts and continues to brush her teeth and wash her face- freshening up before her brother can yell at her again. When she figures she spent enough time in there, Avery grabs some of her hair products and brush before heading back to her room.

While in her room, Avery shuts and locks her door before stripping down. Quickly freshening up with fragrances sprayed all over her body, she pulls out a black adhesive backless and strapless lace bra with matching panties, and lace leggings. Before she can slip on the dress that she had picked out the night before, she busies herself with her hair. After brushing out the tangles and adding in some product to keep it tamed and manageable throughout the day, she parts her hair down the middle and makes sure her curls are perfect.

Since her complexion is fair and blemish free- Avery settles on a bit of dark eyeshadow and some nude lipgloss. When she feels happy with it, Avery hums happily to herself as she digs out the blue spaghetti strap plaid dress with a three tier skirt and pulls it on over her head. Once it's situated correctly, she pairs it with a thin brown leather belt and black gladiator platform sandals.

She nearly skips over to her dresser where her jewelry box resides and picks through it for the perfect accessories. She finds a Fleur de Lis thumb ring that she quickly slips on and when her eyes land on a silver set of fangs attached to a silver chain, she can't help but laugh as she pulls it out and slips it around her neck. As she took a look at herself in the mirror that clung to the back of her bedroom door, Avery smiled widely before frowning for a split second.

She felt a little too bare up top.

Remembering she had several leather jackets, she remembered there was one that would complete her entire outfit. With one last trip to her closet, Avery took out a black leather jacket whose sleeves were permanently scrunched up to bare a couple of inches above her wrist.

Leaving the jacket unzipped, Avery fluffed up her curls before picking up her backpack and headed for downstairs.

..

..

After being teased about wearing a dress by John before he pecked her on the forehead and nearly breaking down because he admitted Avery looked like a young Claudia- Stiles realized his jeep had been fixed. And after assuring her twin that she'd thank the scary brothers for him, John wrangled his teens into the kitchen to eat a quick and small breakfast before they all left for work and school.

During breakfast, Avery made sure to study Stiles when he wasn't paying attention and realized that the dark circles beneath his eyes were fading. He was grinning and laughing at something their Dad was saying, and Avery was glad that it didn't seem forced.

After breakfast and a quick farewell from their Dad, Avery found herself situated in the passenger seat of Stiles' jeep as he drove the both of them to school.

The drive is quick, Avery and Stiles both in good spirits as  _Too Close by Alex Clare_ blared through the jeep's speakers. Stiles laughed as he kept his eyes on the road, occasionally glancing at his lip-syncing twin.

Avery was so into the fake singing that she hadn't realized Stiles had already pulled up to the school or the fact that he had already parked. There was a bunch of hand gestures and non-provocative grinding in her seat as Stiles let the song play as he parked, chuckling at his sister's energized state. When he looked out the windshield and just completely lost it, Avery turned to see what he was looking at and found both Scott and Isaac recording her with their phones.

Immediately stopping all dancing, Avery slapped off the radio and pouted. "You guys are assholes." She mumbled under her breath, knowing full well the two wolves can hear her.

The moment Scott starts laughing, it sets off Stiles once more and Isaac is biting back a grin to keep from laughing. As Isaac starts to near her side of the jeep, Avery grabs her backpack from it's spot at her feet and hops on out.

Like the good boyfriend he is, Isaac immediately relieves her of her backpack and swoops down to peck her cheek. "Missed you."

"Missed you, too." Avery laughs before smoothing down her dress.

Isaac beams at her, letting her smooth down the skirt of her dress as he drinks in his fill of his girlfriend in her outfit. The second her hands have nothing to busy themselves with, Isaac reaches down to grip her right hand and entwine their fingers together.

As they come around to the front of the jeep, Scott playfully wolf-whistles. "Dang, Scrappy! You clean up nice."

Isaac nods, eagerly agreeing with his words and feeling like the luckiest guy on Earth at the moment. Sticking her tongue out at Scott, Avery giggles. "Shutup, Scooby. You've seen me dressed up before."

"Yeah but that was for a party." Scott waves her off. "This dress just screams  _'I'm related to Stiles'_  and the leather jacket adds that badass vibe you give off."

Avery playfully rolls her eyes while Isaac chuckles. The foursome linger around, waiting for the last two members of their group to show up before heading inside. While Stiles is verbally vomiting to the group, Isaac spaces out when he catches sight of of Avery's necklace.

With a grin tilting the corner of his lips upward, he gently touches the silver fangs. "When do I get to meet the two infamous pseudo-brothers?"

"Soon. I think." Avery tells him. "The last I spoke to them, they didn't seem as if they were in a hurry to leave. I think they might stick around for a few days."

Lydia then shows up, parking with ease and marching up to her group of friends and flashing all of them a smile. She spends the time before Allison's arrival whining to Avery that she really needed to go shopping with her because she actually had cute taste in clothes and was in love with her shoes.

Avery laughed, reminding her feisty friend that her closet was always open should she want to browse for something to borrow when Allison finally showed up. One look at the Huntress had Avery's stomach churning and a frown developing.

It seemed the darkness was started to consume their female friend.

With a tired sigh, Allison managed a grin and waved to all her friends before Stiles and Scott led them inside and to their doom.

Economics was loud as usual seeing as Finstock never really understood what using his inside voice meant so he pretty much yelled throughout his entire lesson. Avery had trouble stifling her laughter, and every now and then, Finstock would hear it and make her read aloud from the textbook they were going over. Isaac would grin at her, mocking her for having to read aloud when he knew she hated doing so- so to get back at him, Avery threw a paper ball at the back of Finstock's head when neither he or Isaac were paying attention to her. When Finstock yelped and asked who threw it, Avery discreetly pointed at Isaac.

Avery didn't bother hiding her amusement when Isaac had to run laps around the Lacrosse field during P.E. Nor did she deny his accusations when he figured out his own girlfriend framed him.

..

..

"I can't believe you framed me." Isaac told her with an amused grin as Avery stopped by her locker. "You're lucky I don't get winded easily."

Avery laughed. "That's what you get for making fun of me. You know I hate reading in front of a crowd."

"You weren't  _in front_ of them."

"Same difference!" She shot back.

Isaac smiles wide, his chuckles escaping soon after. As Avery is switching out her books, Isaac's chuckling suddenly ceases. As she looks up at him, she can see his jaw is clenched and he's growling lowly.

With the hairs standing up on the back of her neck, Avery quickly assesses their surroundings from her peripheral vision before she turns around to face the threat.

With Isaac's growling getting a bit louder, and the warning not as veiled in his growl anymore, Avery whirls around only to see Ethan and Aiden standing opposite them.

"Relax." Ethan steps forward with his hands held up in mock surrender. "We don't want trouble."

Isaac doesn't stop and as Avery curiously studies them, she notices how Aiden is standing back with his hands deep in his pockets looking sort of sheepish in a way. Deciding to give Ethan a chance, since he's Danny's boyfriend, she gains Isaac's attention to make him stop growling.

When Isaac calms down, Ethan takes another step towards them. "We've just come to apologize." He tells them. "Right, Aiden?"

"Yeah." Aiden mumbles, his eyes downcast but he moves forward so he doesn't have to risk people overhearing what he's about to say. "We, uh, we wanted to say sorry for- you know- Boyd." He nervously gulps. "We weren't in a position to deny orders and we're sorry for the way things went down."

Isaac tenses just the slightest but as Avery reaches for his hand and gives him a reassuring squeeze, he relaxes. "Why now?" The beta wolf asks them.

"Because we need to mend every bridge we burned with the McCall Pack." Ethan answers. "Our former Pack is gone. Dead. And we talked to Scott who gave us permission to stick around so we can  _lick our wounds_ before moving on. We just thought our temporary stay might be easier if everyone wasn't hating us."

"Lick your wounds?" Avery raised a questioning eyebrow at the nearly identical twins.

"Yeah, uh, when Jennifer broke our neck- we were in our conjoined alpha form. Our neck hasn't properly healed yet."

Avery's amused expression fell. "Oh." A momentary silence fell over them and when the warning bell rang, Avery's head snapped up to the twins. "Okay." She tells them. "I accept your apology for the sake of everyone being peaceful but," She pauses just long enough to look each twin in the eye. "-don't expect us to be buddy-buddy. I'll be respectful of you and your relationships with my friends but don't expect any invites to a slumber parties at my house any time soon."

The twins each nod, expressions serious until Isaac snorts in amusement. "Slumber parties. Really?"

"Keep mocking me, Lahey. You won't be invited either." Ethan and Aiden both grin, the tension leaving them as they have finally apologized to everyone they needed to. Their grins eventually turn into muffled laughter when the class bell rings and they're still standing in the hallway and Avery's eyes go wide at being late. "Motherfu-"

"Okay!" Isaac cuts her off with a laugh. "Let's go get our late passes before you get a write up for cursing in the hall."

..

..

By the time lunch has rolled around, Isaac got his revenge on Avery. Revenge that isn't so bad when she realizes that the video of her singing from this morning has made Allison crack up and giggle every time she glances at her. At least now, the darkness isn't as consuming as it was this morning.

English has everyone goofing off, the substitute being too old and slow to really teach them anything. Avery is glad that most of them have the same class together, well everyone sans Isaac but she uses the time wisely to make sure that she and Lydia keep Scott, Allison, and Stiles entertained for the entire class period.

..

..

Elijah and Nik were standing in what they presumed was the parking lot for the Beacon Hills High.

They had spent the morning getting together last minute paper work that they needed before leaving town for a bit to get a  _bite_ to eat. After lunch, they spent quite an amount of time at the Sheriff's Department talking to John about various things. When they asked what time it was that Avery was to get out of school, John gave them a time and pointed them in the right direction.

"How much longer do we have to wait?" Nik grumbled as he and Elijah found the blue jeep that belonged to Avery's twin.

"A few minutes." Elijah answered him.

Nik groaned impatiently as he let his eyes scan the parking lot. There were various old, new, clean, and dirty cars littering the space as well as a couple of motorcycles.

Avery's green motorcycle, the first one he had bought her, was sitting there among several others. Had he not been there when she gave it away or been there when John informed he and Elijah that Avery had ridden with Stiles in his jeep to school that morning- he'd have thought that Avery wasn't at school.

With the final seconds ticking down, the final bell rang and Nik sighed in relief.

As the children immediately started to filter out of the school exits, Elijah and Nik start to search for Avery and easily ignore the stares and giggles and whispers about them. They're standing by the jeep, not wanting to move from their place in case Avery had left without them knowing.

A couple minutes into their search, the uncertainty in his brother's voice has Nik immediately seeking out the direction. "Nik. Three o'clock."

Nik watched as Avery, Stiles, Scott, and three others walked out the building. They walked off to the side of the door where they lingered for a bit before Avery stripped out of her leather jacket and the girl with fair skin and dark, nearly straight hair took it with a grin. The tallest male of the bunch, the one with short cropped hair that had a bit of a curl to it was laughing as he crouched down a bit and Avery jumped on his back.

Wrapping her arms around the teen's neck, Nik and Elijah didn't miss the way the boy peered over his shoulder with a lovestruck expression. As soon as the boy had his hands hooked under Avery's thighs and he stood tall, Avery blushed as the dark-haired girl laughed and used the leather jacket to shield what they figured was Avery's knickers since she was wearing a dress.

Once situated, they took off walking again- this time towards the jeep- and the two brothers listened as the teens laughed and joked around with each other.

Scott is the first one to notice their presence, a smile lighting up his face as he nudges Avery and then points in their direction. Everyone's gaze follows Scott's direction and when they're spotted by everyone, Nik and Elijah wave politely at them.

"Hey, guys!" Avery beams when they finally reach the jeep. "What are you doing here?!"

"Just wanted to see you in your environment." Nik drawls. "It's nice to see you acting like a teenager for once, kitten."

Allison and Lydia sigh dreamily at his accent which causes the boys to groan and Avery to laugh. She quickly introduces them to Allison and Lydia- the two girls grinning goofily when Elijah and Nik both kiss their knuckles in greeting.

Avery finally hops off Isaac's back, draping her jacket over her arm as she stands next to Isaac. "Nik, Elijah- I want you to officially meet Isaac. My boyfriend."

There's a moment of silence that trails after Avery's words and everyone is gazing between the two brothers and Isaac- each one of them hiding amused grins.

Isaac- who had wanted to meet these two- suddenly feels like he's way in over his head. He nervously gulps and it isn't until Avery elbows him that he moves. "H-hi. I'm Isaac." His hand shoots out for them to shake and the group snickers.

"Isaac, huh?" Nik drawls as he steps forward, grasping the teen's hand. "You do know that should you harm one hair on her pretty little head, it won't end well for you."

"Yeah." Lydia pipes up with a smirk. "He'll most likely sever your head and serve it to Avery on a silver platter."

Avery groans, Isaac suddenly pales, and the rest of the group laughs.

"Told her that, did you?" Elijah smiles at Avery.

"It might've slipped out one night." She tells him nervously as she fidgets from foot to foot. The meeting between her past and present wasn't supposed to go down like this. They were supposed to get along splendidly and not tease her about it.

The moment for teasing is suddenly over as Isaac stands just a little taller and all eyes are on him. Clearing his throat, he looks Nik straight in the eye. "I'm well aware of a lot of things from Avery's past life, sir." He tells him. "And I swear it when I say that I'll never hurt her."

Isaac and Avery's group of friends don't really seem shocked by his statement- the lot of them knowing just how much Isaac truly cared for her- but for Elijah and Nik, it's refreshing to hear the truth fall from the kid's mouth.

Nik and Elijah both nod at him before Nik's attention gets drawn back to Avery. Well, not exactly Avery but what she's wearing around her neck.

The fang necklace.

Nik smirks and when Avery catches his gaze, she grins. "Cheeky, love." He tells her.

"Yeah, well, I gotta support the nightwalkers somehow." Avery laughs- she and Nik gaining everyone's attention. "Especially since you banned me from wearing the glue-ons."

"Banned?" Lydia muses.

Allison quirks an eyebrow at her. "What did you do?"

"Nothing!" Avery squeaks way too fast.

Everyone's eyes light up in amusement, knowing full well that she  _did_  do something. "She tricked Nik into thinking she turned into a vampire." Elijah shakes his in mock disapproval- the small smirk giving away his own amusement. "She came home one night from a fight feigning a headache and as she stumbled up to my brother, she opened her mouth with a groan and asked why her gums were hurting her."

"And when Nik saw the fangs," Avery slowly grinned at the memory. "-he went temporarily psycho and nearly killed the vampires who fought by my side for letting me get killed. It was hilarious until his hand disappeared into someone's chest cavity."

"Yes." Nik now smirked. "You're very lucky you stopped me before I ripped out her heart."

Avery snickered for a moment before she realized no-one else was laughing. When she looked up at her friends, she saw that they were all either gaping or went rather pale. "Eh, you'll get used to his mood swings." She waved them off.

No-one said anything and surprisingly, it was Isaac who relaxed first. "You really had one hell of a life before Beacon Hills, huh?"

Avery's only answer was the smile she flashed at him.

"Well, while all this is swell," Stiles cut in. "-I really doubt talking about this in the open is appropriate." He said as he gestured around to all the lingering students. "If you're sticking around, we really need to go somewhere more private."

"It's fine, Mr. Stilinski." Elijah gazed at him. "We just wanted to come tell Avery about our plans of sticking around for a week or two but it seems my brother is easily distracted when it comes to your sister."

"Am not." Nik pouted. "It's not my fault we were blindsided by the boyfriend."

Isaac blushed as all eyes turned to him but Avery's voice soon pulled the attention away from him. "S-staying? You guys are staying for a while?!"

"Yes." Elijah nodded. "We found a home just on the outskirts of town. It is ours for the time being."

Avery beamed and slowly but surely, everyone else smiled at the news.

"Well, now that that's out of the way, we best get out of your hair." Nik drawled before flashing a dimpled smirk at Elijah who returned the facial expression. "Until next time, friends." He nodded his head at all of them and in a blink of an eye- both Elijah and Nik were gone from the parking lot.

"Now that's how you pull a disappearing act." Avery joked. Scott, Stiles, Isaac, Allison, and Lydia just blinked before looking around the parking lot for the two brothers who were just standing in front of them seconds ago. "And now that they're gone, let's go!" She gripped Isaac's hand in her own. "I feel like taking a walk."

As Avery started to pull Isaac along behind her, everyone rolled their eyes as Isaac grinned and easily followed.

..

..

Isaac and Avery walked with no destination in mind and ended up in the middle of town. With the sun pleasantly shining down, Avery found no need to wear her jacket and so Isaac draped it over his free arm while Avery linked her arm through his other.

Every child, every teen, every parent, and grand parent they passed seemed to have a need to wave and smile at them- and since Isaac wasn't much for attention, he let Avery wave and smile back to her heart's content. Some of the older couples had him laughing when he'd find them staring at grinning at he and Avery, and with his werewolf hearing he picked up their hushed conversations of how he and Avery made an adorable couple.

When Avery finally asked what he was laughing at, Isaac told her and then found Avery beaming at the couples who thought she was adorable.

As they continued to walk, they came across a small park where Avery finally decided to unglue herself from Isaac's side and pranced around him- her skirt flaring out when she twirled.

"What are you doing?" Isaac laughed.

"I'm being a teenager." She answered with a grin. "We're free! We're finally free!" Her tinkling laugh rings out and Isaac finds himself smiling fondly at her. "The supernatural drama is finally over."

"You know you just jinxed us, right? Now something is going to happen."

Avery stops spinning, her smile faltering a split second as her eyes catch something behind him. When Isaac shifts in spot, the smile is back as is her laughter. "Well for now it's not. Come on, let's go sit and enjoy the sunshine." She beams up at him.

Isaac doesn't resist as Avery reaches forward to grip his hand and lets her lead him wherever it was she wanted to go.

Her destination is a park bench not that far up ahead and when Avery sits down and crosses one leg over the other, Isaac swore he saw her looking over his shoulder as she rolled her eyes before chuckling and looking away.

As Isaac sits and stretches his arms out along the back of the bench, Avery scoots over to his side and smiles at everyone who walks by. Using this as his chance to scan their surroundings, he quickly scans the environment around them but nothing sticks out to him.

With a content sigh, Avery looked towards the sky as she closed her eyes and stretched before relaxing once more and leaning into Isaac's side.

"You're like a cat." He suddenly voiced. "You like soaking up the sun, huh?"

"Mmmm." Avery hummed before chuckling. "I used lounge around bikinis every chance I got back in New Orleans." She admitted. "Only Nik and Elijah didn't like everyone staring so they made me lounge on the roof where they eventually made it my personal escape."

Isaac smiled upon hearing that. "They're really protective, aren't they?"

"Oh yeah." Avery nodded before turning to face him with her face passive. "You haven't changed your mind, have you? About us now that you've met the men who raised me as family and will continue to be a part of my life."

"No." Isaac's quick to assure her. "Elijah and Nik, I will admit that they weren't what I was expecting but I like them. They've saved you, protected you, and trained you so in my book- they're awesome. While it's a bit of a shock to hear them speak so freely of those that they've  _killed,_ I can handle it. You're worth it." He then adds in as his arm finds it's way onto her shoulders and squeezing her closer.

Avery giggles as she quickly pecks his jaw before turning to look out towards the park while laying her head on Isaac's shoulder. "So there's not anything they could possibly do that would scare you away from me?"

After a moment of hesitancy, Isaac shrugs. "They can try but then I will try even harder just to keep you."

"Good." He hears Avery mutter before she's pecking the underside of his jaw now. She quickly leans forward, her eyes scanning the park. "Show yourselves, you prats! I know you're following us."

Isaac's eyes widen. "Avery, what-"

"Always knew we taught you a bit too well." Nik's voice suddenly drawled from behind them, startling Isaac. When both teens turn around, Nik and Elijah and peering down at them- amusement dancing in their eyes. "Well don't you two look cozy."

When Avery sees Nik's one eyebrow raise and his eyes dart to where Isaac and Avery are touching, she rolls her eyes. "Yes, Nik. I let people touch me now. It's easier here."

And just like that, Nik's features soften. "Good. I thought we were going to have to beat someone with their own limbs."

Isaac snorts but when Nik and Elijah stare at him, he stops. "Do good to remember your manners, boy." Elijah then speaks up. "If we see or hear about Avery being mistreated, it won't end well for you."

Isaac gulps. "Noted."

"Brilliant." Nik smirked. "Now if will excuse us, it's time for us to take our leave." He nodded to Isaac before turning to Avery. "We'll be seeing you soon, Princess. Stay out of trouble."

"Always do. Trouble finds me, remember?" She quickly quips before they can disappear.

Nik merely snorts in amusement as Elijah tugs on one of her curls before finally disappearing and leaving them on their own.

"Okay so maybe they do scare me." Isaac suddenly voices.

Avery snorts before her laughter rings out. "Come on." She continues to laugh as she stands, holding her hand out to him. "Let's go get some ice cream."

..

..

With John working a double shift at work, Stiles and Avery found themselves planted on the sofa downstairs with their laptops glued to their laps and the TV playing a random channel as background noise.

Scott and Isaac were out and about doing their werewolf duty while Allison and Lydia were doing their own thing which left the Stilinski siblings to find their own amusement.

Stiles was currently reblogging every one of his OTPs from his favorite TV shows on a certain website whereas Avery, who had made an account on the same site after seeing her brother's blog, reblogged every mythical piece of lore she could find just for the hell of it. While most of what she was finding wasn't accurate, it still made her grin as she decorated her blog to her liking so people knew her interests.

The shrill ringing of Avery's phone shattered their lazy peacefulness and since she was in a sluggish mood, Avery easily answered it with a slide of her finger and tapped the screen with the same finger without even glancing at it.

"You're on speaker. What's your damage?"

Stiles snorted at her greeting but kept his eyes glued to the screen of his own laptop.

" _The first call I give you and that's how you answer? Wow. I'm totally feeling the love."_

The familiar voice and sarcastic reply threw Avery off balance as she stuttered out an apology. But apparently, it wasn't enough to throw off Stiles. "Derek?!"

" _Stiles._ " He acknowledged. " _Is the rest of your pack there as well?_ "

"No." Avery immediately blurted before grinning widely. "Holy shit, Derek! How've you been?! Where have you been?!"

" _Here and there._ " Was the response they got. " _Cora's out right now doing some research but that's not why I'm calling._ "

"Then why are you?" Avery asked.

" _Well, I'm sitting here in our room and the most strangest thing occurred._ " They could practically hear the amusement in his voice. " _A very sleek looking black box appeared from thin air on her bed. The moment I tried to open it, the boxed burned me. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you?_

Avery chuckled as Stiles turned his questioning gaze on her. "Gotta love witches." She mused. "How'd you know I had anything to do with it?"

" _Just a hunch._ " Derek admitted. " _That and the fact that there's a very fancy 'R' engraved atop the box. Aren't those two Originals named Reynolds?_ "

"You caught me." She laughed. "It's a gift for Cora. Knives to be exact. The type that keep a supernatural being from healing straight away." She reminded him. "I told her I'd get her some and since you two left, I had to get one of Nik's witches to spell a box and magically FedEx it to her. The box will only open at Cora's touch and keep away those who aren't her- hence the burn."

" _Yeah, well, thanks for that._ " He muttered. There was a moment of silence, though not awkward, before his voice came through the speaker once more. " _Well, Cora will be back soon so I better go. I'll see you soon. Sooner than you might think._ "

"Good." Avery grinned. "Better make it fast. Elijah and Nik are here. I'm sure they'd love to meet the Hales."

Derek's deep chuckle was enough to make Avery's grin turn into a smile. " _We'll see. Bye, guys._ "

"Bye." Avery and Stiles said in unison before Avery ended the call.

As soon as Avery's phone blacked out, she went back to focusing on her laptop but she could feel a burning gaze lingering on her. As her fingers flew across the keyboard, she looked up to meet her brother's gaze.

"Derek talks to you?! Why?" He immediately blurted. "He didn't keep in contact with anyone else and we've known him longer. No offense."

"None taken." She shrugged as her eyes went back to the screen. "And in all honesty, I don't really know why he chooses to stay in contact with me. We just clicked."

"But you and Isaac-"

"No!" Avery's eye bulged at what her brother's mind came up with. "No, we didn't click like  _that._ It was more of a sibling click." She quickly explained. "I asked him to keep in contact with me before they left. If anything happened to them, no-one was going to get away with hurting them. I'd make sure of it."

Stiles slowly sank back into the cushions of his seat. "Oh."

When Stiles seemed to be occupied with his laptop once more, Avery slyly went through her phone. When she saw that Derek has used his phone to make the call, she figured that Cora had her phone on her as well. As quickly as she could, Avery pulled up Cora's contact information and sent off a text.

_'Your present has arrived in your room. Don't get stab happy.'- Avery_

Avery didn't expect for the teen to have her phone on so she was slightly surprised when a reply came back.

_'No promises ;)- Cora_

With an amused snort and grin, Avery put her phone away and went back to reblogging nonsense on her blog.

* * *

**Eh. I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter =/ If you find any errors, let me know and I'll fix them :)**


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Avery's outfits can be found [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/starting_new_we_might_fall/set?id=103874009).

 

With a new day came yet another school day. Although, this particular day was a bit of a bore and everyone seemed to be on edge every now and then.

Once again, Avery rode to school with Stiles because she wanted to wait to ride her bike for when her twin got his license as well. The first few morning classes bored everyone and it wasn't until fourth period came around that Scott took Avery to the side.

He had asked if she heard from Allison and when Avery shook her head, he sighed. Apparently Allison hadn't shown up to school and wasn't answering calls or texts.

For a moment, Avery thought old feelings were resurfacing on Scott's behalf once again but when she remembered that Allison was one of three who was surrounded by darkness, she felt uneasy. She tried to reach Allison on her own but just as Scott had told her- Allison wasn't replying or answering.

They then cornered Lydia but she too hadn't heard from the Huntress. When she sensed their unease, she assured them that everything was fine because if it wasn't, they'd have known with Mr. Argent being on a war path had anything happened.

During lunch time- Aiden, Ethan, and Danny sat at the table with Avery, Isaac, Stiles, Scott, and Lydia. And surprisingly, no-one had a problem with it.

When the newcomers sensed the unease coming from Scott and Avery, Danny lightened the mood by joking how much alike Avery and Stiles truly were. When Danny pointed out the batman shirt and ring she was wearing, the group slowly started to laugh and relax.

Classes after lunch passed by a bit more sluggish since majority of them just wanted to go home or check on Allison. But before the final bell could ring, Allison sent out a group text message to her friends.

_'I'm fine. Didn't feel well. Dad stayed home with me. I'll meet up with you guys later.-Allison'_

When everyone gathered up outside in the student parking lot, Scott asked them if they got the same message from her.

"Yep." Avery sighed. "Seems like she wants to be left alone. I say we let her."

Scott's opinion about the matter was clear on his face as he scowled at Avery's words. "I'd listen to Avery, Scott." Lydia grinned at him. "When a girl wants space, you just gotta give her that space. If not.." She trailed off as she looked back at Avery.

"Major fight. Possibly a few things might be thrown at your head followed by a hysterical meltdown." Avery shrugged. "Leave the woman be. She'll come to us."

Isaac slowly grinned as Avery described what Allison might possibly do and a mental picture came to mind. He had just realized that the female race really were scary beings when pissed off.

"Fine." Scott finally caved. Looking around, he caught everyone's gaze. "What are you all going to do then?"

"Go home." Stiles immediately answered. "I'm tired."

Scott nodded along with Stiles as if he were thinking the same thing. "I don't know." Avery mumbled. "I'm suddenly craving a milkshake and fries."

"Mmm." Lydia hummed in agreement. "From  _Sally's_?" Avery's eyes lit up as she quickly nodded. That place had some legendary burgers as well as milkshakes. "I'll drive if you buy."

"Deal." Avery immediately accepted.

Isaac snorted but as all eyes turned to him, he steps over to Avery's side. "I'm feeling a bit hungry myself."

"Of course you are." Stiles rolls his eyes as he heads towards his jeep. "Just text Dad where you're going!" He calls out over his shoulder to his sister. "Don't want him being paranoid."

"Mhm. Will do." Avery muttered as she reached for Isaac's hand, entwining her fingers with his as she followed Lydia towards her car.

..

..

The ride to Sally's was a rather quick one for the girls and a rather torturous one for Isaac.

He had never once been alone with just the two females in their own element and as soon as Lydia's car was off of school grounds and their friends were well behind them, Avery cranked up the radio and the two ladies belted out the lyrics to whatever song caught their attention. In all his time that he's known Lydia, he'd never seen her so care-free and not caring what anyone else thought about her but he found he rather liked this side of the fiery red-head. She could be fun.

And by the time they got to Sally's and settled in a booth, Isaac was the only one to order an actual meal while the girls stuck with milkshakes and fries as they had discussed at school.

Lydia briefly brought up what Elijah and Nik were up to- Avery thinking nothing of it and telling her friend that they were probably up to no good. Avery continued to think nothing of it as Lydia kept bringing up the two brothers but being a werewolf, Isaac had the perks of picking up on people's emotion. Every time their names left Lydia's mouth, he could hear her heart skip a beat and practically hear her swoon as her eyes glazed over just the slightest. When the words 'handsome' and 'good-looking' kept slipping from her friend's mouth, Avery finally picked up on it and changed the topic.

Lydia laughed all the while, dipping her french fries one at a time in her milkshake before popping it in her mouth as Isaac busied his mouth with his own food. Every now and then, he'd glance at Avery and catch her glowering at Lydia or stuffing more than three fries into her shake before shoving them in her mouth.

After finishing his food, Isaac sits with his arm thrown behind Avery's shoulders as Avery and Lydia sip the remaining of their milkshakes and giggle about the school's latest gossip. Apparently, Avery and Isaac were well on their way of becoming the most talked about couple of Beacon Hills High and Avery found it hilarious because she and Isaac hardly showed any public displays of affection.

With the girls giggling and Isaac trying his best to pay attention to them without actually looking like he was interested in what they were saying- a guy's gotta be cool, ya know?- none of them noticed when a familiar person made his way to their table until his shadow fell upon them and he cleared his throat.

Almost immediately, conversation ceased and the entire table tensed until they looked up, spotting Chris Argent staring down at them almost sheepishly.

"Kids." He greeted.

"Hey, Mr. Argent." Avery was the first to overcome her sudden muteness. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, Avery." He attempted to grin down at her as he wrung his hands together. He quickly cast a look from side-to-side before peering over his shoulder. "Do you mind if I take a seat?" He gestured to the empty spot next to Lydia. "I have something to ask of you two ladies."

Avery's heart started to thump just a little faster now. "G-go ahead."

As Lydia scooted over and Mr. Argent took a seat, Isaac removed his arm from around Avery's shoulders and gripped her hand before placing their clasped hands in his lap. After a reassuring squeeze, Avery started to calm.

"I apologize for intruding on your down time so I'll just get right into it." Chris spoke lowly so that no-one eavesdropped on them. "I'm well aware of the act that Allison, Stiles, and Scott performed in order to find us when Jennifer took us and the consequences that came with said act." He told them and immediately, the mood turned solemn. "What I want to know is how do I deal with Allison? How do Stiles and Scott cope with this?" He asked them and when he looked up, Avery's heart immediately broke for the man's pain. "My daughter isn't the same anymore and for once, I don't know what to do."

Lydia feebly grinned as she reached up to grip Chris' shoulder. "She needs you right now." She told him. "She needs all of us. The more people she has around her to talk to and laugh with, the easier it is to deal with the darkness."

"But she's pushing me away." Chris sighed. "She wouldn't even get up out of bed for school this morning."

"So that's why she ignored us all day." Lydia mused softly.

Chris' head perked up just the slightest at Lydia's words. "Not all day." Avery quickly corrected her. "She did text us after school ended."

Lydia nodded. "True."

"Wait." Chris' gaze darted between the two females. "She talked to you today?"

"Texted us, actually." Avery shrugged. "Just told us that she was fine and that she'd get in contact with us later."

"Well that's more than what she's said to me." He muttered. The four of them lapsed into a silence seeing as they didn't know what else to say to the man. After a few moments of quiet, he suddenly looked up. "Can I ask you girls a favor?"

Avery slowly nodded when she saw Lydia nodding as well. "Sure."

"Can you stay with Allison tonight?" He blurted. "Have a girls night or something. I- I don't know what to tell her when she's like this."

"Of course." Lydia immediately accepted.

"Yeah. We can do that." Avery told him.

Chris seemed to sigh in relief at their words before letting a small grin grace his lips. "Thanks, girls." Avery and Lydia smiled at the elder man before finishing off their glasses of milkshake. When Avery reached into her backpack for her wallet- because Avery wasn't one to carry purses to school- Chris hurriedly delved into his back pocket and slipped out a twenty before tossing it on the table. "I'll see you girls later." He said as he quickly stood. "See you around, Isaac."

"Bye." All three sounded in unison when Chris started to walk away. With a wave over his shoulder, the Hunter was out the door and heading towards his vehicle.

As the three teens get ready to leave and make their own way towards the exit, Isaac finally speaks up. "Am I the only one who's wondering how Chris Argent knew where to find us?"

Avery and Lydia share a look before shrugging while Isaac's left to ponder the mystery.

..

..

When pulling up to the Stilinski home, Isaac saw that Scott's bike was sitting outside so he decided to get off there as well. Lydia told Avery that she'd be back for her when the sun started to set so for her to be ready and ready to gossip all night while eating junk food until they puked.

Upon entering the house, Isaac and Avery found Stiles and Scott sitting in front of the TV with a bowl of chips sitting between them as Avengers played on the screen. The moment the Black Widow appeared on screen, Isaac was quick to make himself comfortable in the recliner and Avery was left to huff and scoff at the three of them.

With John still being at work, Avery set out to text him about staying the night at the Argents with Lydia. And since Chris was going to be there as well, John okay'd it.

Avery was in the middle of packing an overnight bag when Stiles, Scott, and Isaac stumbled into her room before finding any available surface to throw themselves on and get comfortable. As Scott and Stiles fought for room on the bed, Isaac slipped into her desk chair and watched as she shoved a pink and gray rugby styled thermal sleep shirt and a pair of striped sleep boxers into her bag. As she went to the bathroom for her toiletries, she heard Isaac explain to the two boys about Chris seeking them out and telling them he needed help with Allison.

When the boys found out it was a sleep over for the girls, Stiles suggested the boys have their own in his room, and Avery couldn't help but snort in amusement at Scott and Isaac's eager agreement.

..

..

Lydia showed up to pick up Avery just as the sun had set. Avery didn't know if Allison knew they were coming because they had yet receive any type of message from their friend so they decided to not fill her in. They figured that if they showed up with their bags and food, it'd be harder for her to turn them away.

The two teen girls make quick work of stopping by the local Wal-Mart and throwing random pieces of junk food and jars of nutella and peanut butter into their cart. When their cart is half full of snacks, candy, and drinks- they decided that that's enough and pay for their items before setting out to the car. As Avery places the bags in the trunk of Lydia's car, Lydia places a call for two pizzas. She orders one Meat Lovers pie and gets the other a canadian ham with pineapple since it's Allison's favorite.

..

..

Even though Chris was expecting the two girls to show up, he couldn't help the look of surprise on his face when he opened his door to see them with bags hanging from their shoulders, Avery holding two pizzas on one hand, two bags from her other hand, and Lydia with bags of a variety of snacks hanging from her fingers.

"Hope you're hungry." Avery grinned up at him. "I don't think us three girls could eat all this pizza."

Chris numbly nodded as Lydia snorted. "You could but you rather eat candy and pringles."

With a sheepish grin at her friend, Chris opened the door up more and let the girls walk on in with Lydia leading the way. He pointed them out to the medium-sized kitchen where Avery sat down the pizzas and cold drinks on the table while Lydia littered the counters with the other bags of goodies.

Chris watched the girls in awe as they started to unload their bags and line up the snacks along the counters. By the time every item was out of it's plastic bag, Chris raised his eyebrows at them.

"You know, when I asked for you to keep Allison company, I didn't think you'd go to this length."

Avery shrugged with a grin. "It's what friends do, Mr. A. Now come on, serve yourself some pizza and soda."

Chris huffed a laugh and didn't need to be told twice. He told Avery where the plates and glasses where as he moved forward to see which pizza was which. When Avery and Lydia saw him take two of the Meat Lovers and one of the pineapple canadian ham, they couldn't help but grin when they realized that's where Allison got her taste from.

As Chris was serving himself a glass of cold soda, Allison walked into view. And when Avery and Lydia caught sight of their friend, their grins faltered.

"What are you guys doing here?" Allison asked, her hands tucked away in the pockets of a baggy sweater jacket she was wearing. Her hair was pulled back into a small sloppy bun and leggings covered her legs.

She looked beat and tired.

"We, uh, we came for a girl's night." Lydia told her.

Allison's gaze darted from Lydia to Avery to her Dad where they could all see anger flicker behind her eyes. "You shouldn't have." She deadpanned. "I told you I wasn't feeling well. I don't feel up for a girl's night."

"Allison-" Chris called out but she quickly cut him off with a glare.

"Go home." She says to Avery and Lydia though her gaze never wavers from her Dad's. "I'll call or text you tomorrow."

Chris sighs in defeat and as Allison turns to march out of the kitchen, Avery hardens her features and takes a step forward. "Allison Argent! You get your ass back in here."

Lydia and Chris' eyes go wide as Allison freezes mid-step. When she turns to face her friend, the scowl if very evident on her face. "What?"

"You heard me." Avery steels herself. "I'm going to tell you what I told my brother." She says. "Don't push us away." Allison scoffs with a roll of her eyes but her shoulders visibly slump. "I won't say  _I know how it feels_ because I don't but you have to let us be there for you. You  _need_ to let your Dad be there for you." She pleads. "You were warned of the consequence, Allison, but you can't let it consume you because then you won't come back from it. Your Dad, us, the Pack- it's what's going to keep you grounded. As cheesy as it sounds, we're the light at the end of that damn dark tunnel. Don't turn away from us."

Allison's eyes have glazed over with tears and the second her lips twitch, Lydia loses it. "We're the light at the end of the tunnel? Seriously?!"

Chris' deep chuckles sound next before Allison snorts and quickly covers her mouth with her sleeve-covered hand. "You guys are horrible." Avery pouts. "I was being serious."

"Yes, we're all sure you were." Lydia's lips twitch in amusement as she tries to stop her laughter. "It's just.. you really have a way with words."

"Yes, well, at least I got a reaction other than anger and annoyance out of our friend. What did you do?"

Lydia narrows her eyes in mock anger and Allison finally chuckles out loud. "Okay, okay. You can stay." She caves.

"Excellent." Lydia immediately chirps. "Because we weren't going anywhere anyway so do you want to do this here or in your room?"

Chris watches as the spark in his daughter's eyes slowly comes back the longer she's exposed to her friends and their antics. As Allison chews on her bottom lip in contemplation, Chris clears his throat as he gathers up his plate and glass. "If you go to your room, remember not to shove any trash beneath your bed." He says before disappearing into an opened doorway.

As Allison gazes at both her friends, she slowly grins before moving to gather up some of the snacks on the counter. "Let's take this to my room."

They're quick to gather up as much stuff as their hands and arms could carry before following after Allison into her room. Allison throws a towel atop her bed, instructing Avery to lay the pizza boxes on top so any grease doesn't stain her sheets. As Allison and Lydia toss the rest of their junk food around the bed and on the bedside tables, Avery quickly pours them something to drink before they all settle down on the bed.

With Allison and Lydia sitting up against the headboard, Avery lays out on her stomach towards the end of the bed.

"So," Avery drawls as she opens up the pizza boxes and pulls out a meat lovers slice. "-I've actually never been to one of these so I'm not sure what we're supposed to do."

Allison and Lydia pause for a split second as they're retrieving their own slice of pizza goodness in shock that Avery had never done this before. As they share a brief look, Allison's the first to speak up.

"We eat. We gossip. We give makeovers and we stay up as late as we can." She shrugs. "It's not a big deal."

Avery tentatively bites into her food as she slowly chews and thinks about what they could talk about. Luckily for her, as soon as Lydia gets settled with her piece of pizza, she speaks first.

"So, Jackson emailed the other day. Told me all about how he's part of some pack in London now." She shrugs as if it were no big deal. "He wanted to know how things were down here so I told him everything."

"Everything?" Avery mused with a quirk of her eyebrow.

"Everything." Lydia snorted. "He can't believes Stiles has a hot sister."

At this, Allison and Avery both choke on their food with Allison recovering first and giggling. "You sent him a picture?"

"Duh." Lydia chimes before biting into her slice, chewing, and swallowing. "He didn't believe me so I took a picture of her and Stiles one day at lunch. And then I told him about how she can kick ass and everything and well, he's impressed."

"Uh,  _she's_  sitting right here." Avery scowled at them for talking as if she weren't there. "And I'm not sure how I feel about you sending a picture of me to your ex-boyfriend. Is it weird that he thinks I'm hot?"

"Pft. No." Allison shakes her head. "If Lydia can kiss Scott and we be okay then Jackson thinking you're hot is perfectly fine."

"Whoa. Wait. What?!" Avery laughed as her gaze darted back and forth between the two grinning girls in front of her. "Why haven't I heard this story before?"

"'Cause the boys don't like to talk about it." Allison answered. "But it happened. It was when Scott and I were really showing interest in one another and then Lydia threw herself at Scott because she wanted to be dating the Lacrosse star."

"Well I wouldn't have done that if Scott hadn't been bit by Peter and then showed off, and made Jackson look not as good."

The three girls took a break from talking as they laughed, ate some more pizza, and took a sip of their drinks.

"So what happened afterward?" Avery asked as she worked on her second slice of pizza. "I imagine Lydia kissing Scott didn't sit well with you at first?"

Allison smiled at the memory. "Not at all."

"No shit." Lydia huffed which caused Allison to laugh and Avery to grin. "She took me out to the middle of the Preserve and intimidated me with her bow and exploding arrows."

"Atta girl, Alli." Avery winked at her with a grin. "That's one way to make sure no-one messes with your man." Allison beams proudly and Lydia playfully rolls her eyes as she continues to eat. When Avery chances one good look at her friend, she can't believe how true her words rang when she said that all she, Stiles, and Scott needed were their family and friends. She and Lydia had only spent a good ten minutes in their friend's company and already, they could see the difference in her. "So, since we're on the subject of Scott." Avery grins coyly as does Lydia. "Is there any chance of a second chance for you and him?"

Allison slowly chews the remaining food in her mouth as she thinks about it. "Honestly?" And at both their eager nods, she sighs with a small grin. "I hope there is." She mumbles. "The feelings are still there as is the chemistry. It's just a matter of us acting on it and taking that step again."

"Pft. That's simple." Avery shrugs as she bites into her pizza. "Just hide with him in a closet again. I'm sure things will go from there."

As Avery continues with her food, she doesn't see as Allison's face immediately goes red. Lydia has to do a double-take when she sees Allison's face and when Allison refuses to speak after that, Lydia grins. "I'm missing something, aren't I? What's this about a closet?"

Allison turns even redder as Avery snorts, chokes on her pizza, and gulps half her glass of Pepsi before she can speak. "Oh my god, you don't know?!"

"No." Lydia frowns. "What happened?"

"Nothing." Allison immediately blurts which only causes Lydia to be more intrigued. When she sees Lydia perk up, she groans. "Can we drop this? Please. Next subject."

"Oh no you don't!" Lydia jumps in. "We're here to gossip and laugh and have a good time. Now tell me what happened in this closet?"

Avery laughed madly while Allison groaned and shoved a pillow over her face. When Lydia saw that reaction, she immediately turned to Avery for her to spill. "Scott and Alli had to hide in a closet when Mr. Argent came home early." Avery gladly spilled. "Apparently the closet was small because they were pressed up against each other- and without any grinding having to take place- _little_  Scooby woke up and stood at attention."

Allison groaned even louder at Avery's explanation and Lydia cackled madly. "Oh. My. God." She wheezed very unladylike which only caused Allison and Avery to laugh along with her because they'd never seen Lydia let go like this. "Why am I only finding this out now?"

"Because." Allison started to chuckle. "It's embarrassing."

"It's hilarious." Avery amends for her. "Everyone should know."

"No!" Allison immediately glares at her friend. "This doesn't leave the room."

At the intense glare of Allison, Avery and Lydia hold up their hands in surrender. When no-one made a peep, Allison's glare softened and all three girls broke down into a fit of laughter. When they can't stop laughing and eventually push their pizza aside in favor of the candy, Avery closes up the boxes and stacks them before telling the girls she's going to go set them in the kitchen so they can have more room on the bed.

Allison merely nods at her and as soon as Avery steps foot in the kitchen, Chris walks in.

"She sounds better."

Avery smiles at him. "She is. It's like I said. She needs us. All of us, Mr. Argent. The moment she tries to push you away, you latch on and don't let go."

"Yeah." He nods. "I'll have to remember that." Avery catches him eyeing the boxes of pizza and she chuckles.

"Go ahead. We're done with the pizza portion of our night so it's all yours." Chris smiles gratefully before pulling out two more slices and disappearing into the room he'd gone in earlier.

When Avery gets back to the room, Allison and Lydia fall silent and smirk at her. "What?"

"Isaac." Allison's smirk widens. "It's only fair we now get the scoop on you two since you've heard about Scott and Jackson now."

"Yeah." Lydia decides to pipe up. "How far have you and our resident puppy of a werewolf gone? We want the dirty and kinky details."

Allison and Lydia are on the verge of giggling when they see Avery's amused smile falter. The moment they catch it, their smirks falter as well and then they suddenly feel bad.

"Isaac and I-" Avery gulps with a feeble grin. "-the most we've done is, uh, kiss." She shrugs as nonchalantly as she could. "Given my past-"

"Shit, Avery. We're sorry!" Allison's eyes bulge. "We forgot about-"

"It's fine." Avery is quick to cut her off. "I can't let  _that_ dictate my relationships for the rest of my life." She assures them though she averts her gaze to the floor. "But I won't lie. It does have a huge impact on my decisions and I made sure Isaac knew that before we became official." She sadly grins. "He's following my lead as of right now until I'm truly comfortable with going any further."

The silence that follows her answer has Avery fidgeting nervously from foot to foot and when she finally chances a glance at her two friends, she finds them smiling fondly at her.

"He really likes you, you know?" Allison tells her. "You picked a good one."

"Yeah you did." Lydia throws in. "Any guy who's willing to wait and not push his girlfriend into anything is always a good one."

Avery tries her best to suppress her giggle but it slips out. "He's different." She mumbles as a blush stains her cheeks. "When I'm with him, it's different than before when I tried to enter a relationship." Allison and Lydia smile encouragingly at her so she moves forward to sit at the edge of the bed. "His touch doesn't make me flinch anymore nor do his hugs and I sometimes find myself wanting to initiate things with him but I'm too chicken to do so."

"Oh, honey." Lydia cooed softly. Avery thought she was about to say to take all the time she needed but the next words out of Lydia's mouth made Avery snort and Allison laugh. "Just jump his bones already. I'm pretty sure he won't push you away."

..

..

As the night slowly progressed, the girls quickly changed into the sleep wear for the night. Instead of trying to fall asleep- Allison, Avery, and Lydia are wide awake and snacking on junk food as Allison and Lydia tell her all about Scott, Jackson, and Stiles' shenanigans before she got to Beacon Hills.

She figured her brother had always been a pain in the ass so that didn't really come as a shock to her and neither did finding out that Scott has always been an adorable human puppy. Jackson, however, well she got the inkling that he was a bit of a douchebag. Seeing as she hadn't met him face to face, she didn't voice her opinion about him and kept her mouth shut seeing as Lydia still got this look in her eye whenever Jackson was mentioned.

It was obvious to Allison and Avery that Lydia still held feelings for her ex which then prompted them to ask her about Aiden and where things stood with the alpha.

They didn't get much from Lydia- the only piece of information they got on Aiden being that things were okay with the two of them and they were just fooling around until he and Ethan moved on.

The mood threatened to turn somber but before Lydia or Allison could slump in on themselves, Avery jumped up and peered at her reflection in a small oval mirror that clung to Allison's wall.

"So this makeover portion of our night." She mused softly. "Exactly what does it entail?" Just as expected, Lydia immediately perked up. "And stay away from my eyebrows." And again, just as expected, Lydia pouted before looking Avery up and down to see what they could do."

Allison chuckled softly before leaning forward. "What did you have mind? Something just for fun or something on the permanent side."

"I'm thinking something permanent." Avery surprised both Allison and Lydia. "After all we've been through, I'm looking for a bit of change."

Lydia hummed in thought and this time, it was Allison who perked up. "When I wanted change after last years drama, I chopped off my hair. Why not do a haircut?"

Avery suddenly clutched at her hair with false fear. "Are you kidding me?! I've never cut my hair once. I think if I were going to go that drastic, I shouldn't be sober."

Without so much as a peep, Lydia jumped to her feet and nearly sprinted to where she had laid her bag. As she picked it up, she quickly made her way to the bedroom door and locked it. And before either of the other girls could ask what the hell was going on, Lydia's hand disappeared into her bag before coming back out with a bottle of Jose.

Simultaneously, Allison and Avery's eyes bulge. "Oh don't give me that look." Lydia admonished them. "It's a girl's night. Of course there needed to be some form of alcohol." She tosses the bottle onto the bed where Avery quickly snatches it up to keep it from rolling off.

Lydia's hand disappears back into her bag before they hear clinking and she soon produces three shot glasses from within her bag. While Allison and Avery look on with uncertainty, Lydia makes work of setting out the three shot glasses on the nearest beside table before snatching up the bottle of liquor and filling each glass.

As soon as the cap is back on the bottle, Lydia picks up her glass and holds it out as if waiting to toast to something. When she merely quirks an eyebrow at both Allison and Avery- Avery picks up the remaining two shot glasses before handing one over to Allison.

The moment Allison and Avery hold their shot glass near Lydia's, Lydia smirks. "To change."

"To change." Avery and Allison repeat before bumping glass with Lydia and downing their drink.

Lydia takes it like a champ, Allison grimaces at the warmness of the drink, and Avery outright coughs.

"Buck up, ladies." Lydia smirks at them. "This is only the first round of many tonight."

* * *

The next morning, Avery was the first to wake with a groan. Her mouth was terribly dry, her head was pounding, and something was slithering around in her stomach that she was on the verge of upchucking.

As she slowly lifted her head from the pillow, she realized herself and Lydia had trapped Allison between both their sleeping forms. The girls look peacefully asleep and while Avery's head pounded, she couldn't help but wish that they woke up in a similar state she was currently in.

The sudden urge to pee has Avery climbing out from beneath the blanket and sitting at the edge of the bed to steady herself while the room stopped spinning. Allison has a small bathroom connected to her room which she's grateful for because she really didn't want to sneak around the hallways hungover. She didn't think Mr. Argent would be too lenient about them consuming alcohol.

When she finally gets her bearings, Avery stands to walk to the bathroom only to freeze mid-step when a knock sounds on the bedroom door. Avery doesn't make a move to answer it but the second and third knocks start to rouse the other two teenage girls. The second the door knob jingles, Allison and Lydia shoot up in bed.

" _Girls? I don't know why this door is locked and I'm pretty sure I don't want to know but I just thought I'd tell you breakfast is on the counter. I need to go run some errands so I'll be back later."_

Lydia groans before falling back on the pillows and Allison stammers out an, "O-okay, Dad! See you later."

Heavy footsteps sound, signaling that Chris has walked away. Avery heaves a sigh of relief which catches Allison's attention. When Avery glances at her friend, she sees Allison staring wide-eyed at her and looking more alert than a few seconds ago.

"What?" Avery mumbles self-consciously.

Allison remains quiet as she points at Avery's head. "Y-your hair." She mutters. "I didn't think you'd actually go through with it."

Avery's eyebrows furrow in confusion. "My hair?"

When Allison's gaze never leaves her head, Avery gets an unsettling feeling in stomach. She slowly reaches up, fingers delving into her hair and when she feels her hair there, she lets out a breath of relief. But as she combs her fingers through it, she realizes that her fingers come out of it way too soon. She usually has to bring her hair forward so her fingers can keep combing all the way through it but now, her fingers come out of her hair a little passed her shoulders.

Eyes widening in realization, Avery books it to the bathroom and throws open the door. Quickly flicking on the bathroom light, Avery lets her eyes adjust before staring at her reflection in the mirror. She has a serious case of bed head but the thing that sticks out the most is the fact her hair no longer hangs down to the middle of her back. Instead, her hair is hanging limply an inch passed her shoulders.

"What did you do?!" She shrieks.

From inside the bathroom, she can hear someone groan and someone chuckling. As she stomps back into the room, she finds Lydia sitting up now with a grin plastered across her face and Allison rummaging through her bedside table.

"Relax." Lydia waves her off and Avery is oddly jealous that she doesn't seem hungover like she feels or Allison looks. "I only did what you wanted. You wanted change, I gave you change."

"Yeah but," Avery pouted as she whined. "-I wasn't actually being serious! I liked my long hair."

"Yes, well, now you have short hair." Her red-headed friend shrugged as Allison started to pass out Tylenol. "And be glad that you can pull it off. You and Allison look cute with short hair."

"Lydia." Avery whined as she stomped her foot. She graciously took the pills Allison handed her and picked up a discarded half empty gatorade bottle. After quickly downing the pills, she went back to pouting at her friend.

"Knock it off. I'll buy you a snack after we eat Mr. Argent's breakfast."

Avery pursed her lips in contemplation before walking over to her over-night bag. "Fine." She says as she pulls out some clothes. "But I got first shower."

With a snort from her friends, Avery disappears into the bathroom with black slim-fit jeans, a black crop-top with a cheetah print lightning bolt, and a red plaid throw-over shirt. She's quick to do a scrub down on her body and face, and realizes that with shorter hair- it's a hell of a lot easier and quicker to wash out.

While Avery showered in Allison's bathroom, Lydia showered in Chris' and both girls were done around the same time. When they ventured into the kitchen, they found Allison plating chocolate chip pancakes with bacon and eggs along with bowls of fruit. The girls quickly ate, the three of them shoveling food down their throats with very minimal manners before Allison departed to go shower herself.

..

..

The girls spent another few hours with Allison after they've eaten and cleaned up her room, only leaving once Chris came back from running errands. Avery and Lydia were nearing the elevator to be taken down to ground level when Chris had caught then and expressed his gratitude for getting Allison out of her funk.

Both girls had waved him off with smiles, each one earning a hug from the elder Argent before they departed.

The entire drive to Avery's house has Lydia giggling and Avery worrying about how her new haircut is going to be received. Lydia makes no move to soothe her friend and once they're parked outside the Stilinski home, Lydia nearly kicks Avery out of her car before pulling away and laughing inside her car.

Facing her home now, Avery suddenly realizes that her Dad is currently at work and only Stiles is home. Well, Scott too and most likely Isaac.

Shoving her fear down, Avery walks forward and hesitates right outside the front door. She takes a moment to gather her wits before entering her home and following the sounds into the living room. When she steps foot in there, all three boys are already looking at her with smirks.

Fidgeting in spot and ready to ask why they were staring at her, Scott holds up his phone. "Allison said Lydia got scissor happy last night. Since she already had short hair, we figured you were Lydia's victim."

"Yes, well, never trust Lydia after you've consumed alcohol." She bristled under their stares.

Stiles and Scott snorted in amusement while Isaac looked on with his expression dreamy. "Dude, we're so crashing girl's night next time."


	22. Chapter 22

Surprisingly, Avery's haircut went over well with everyone. Isaac really liked it and even caught himself playing with the strands whenever Avery plopped herself in his lap to watch TV with the boys. Given her full stomach and slight hangover, she didn't want to do much so watching TV while being cradled in her boyfriend's lap was the perfect day to her.

By the time John got home and got over the shock of Avery's short hair, he asked about her sudden decision to chop it all off. Avery told him about wanting a change and that Allison was the one who actually suggested a haircut though she kept quiet about alcohol being involved. Scott and Stiles snickered when they heard her leave out that little detail but John didn't pay them much attention.

With Scott and Isaac sticking around, John happily ordered in and bought everyone Thai.

* * *

The following morning, Stiles and Avery wake up to find John making a pot of coffee and bacon sizzling on the stove. While Stiles made a be-line for the fridge, Avery makes quick work of dropping slices of bread into their toaster and cracking a couple of eggs into a pan to scramble.

Once everything was done, the Stilinski's had their breakfast before moving sluggishly into the living room where majority vote ruled on what was displayed on TV. Since it was still a bit early, the news droned on about the world's activities and as the time slowly passed, John and Stiles outvoted Avery and football was put on.

Of course, being bored out of her mind, Avery fell back asleep on the sofa and didn't wake up 'til a little after one in the afternoon. When she woke up though, she found her Dad still sitting in his recliner watching yet another football game and found Stiles rummaging around in the kitchen.

"What's for lunch, Thing One?"

Stiles chuckled at his given nickname before shrugging and turning to look at her. "Whatever we can toss in the oven or in the microwave."

"Hot pockets it is then."

"Yep."

"On it."

Avery moved forward to raid the freezer of it's hot pockets and while she was busy heating those up, Stiles opened the fridge once more and started pulling out lettuce, tomato, onions, and dressing. When Avery merely quirked an eyebrow at his ingredients, he shrugged once more.

"Dad's been getting away with eating too much fast food. It's time I put him back on his diet again."

Avery opens her mouth to argue but the moment she realizes that Stiles and John had a schedule of their own before she showed up, she snaps her mouth shut and grins. She ruined their schedule the moment she stepped foot inside their home and she'd be damned if she permanently changed it.

Avery makes work of heating up enough pizza and ham with cheddar hot pockets while Stiles throws together a salad and sprinkles cubed ham and cheese pieces- that he also found in the fridge- onto the top of said salad. Stiles then calls for their Dad to eat and when John enters the kitchen, he groans upon seeing the bowl that Stiles points out to him.

"Sorry, Pops." Avery laughs while plating her and Stiles' food. "Majority rule. You eat healthy today." John grumbled the entire time to his seat and continued to grumble as he harshly stabbed at his salad, and ate.

Halfway through lunch, Avery's phone chirps- signaling her to a text message. So far, John had been laid back about cell phones at the table so Avery doesn't even bother hiding her phone when she pulls it out to see who it is. It's Allison.

_'Mind telling me what's going on? My dad and I just got two rather large packages delivered from the Reynolds brothers along with a note that says to be ready by 6PM.'_

Avery's brows furrow in confusion before she quickly cleaned her free hand of any grease or salt from her chips. The second both her thumbs hit the screen to type out a reply, a text from Lydia comes in.

_'What's going on at 6? I just got a really marvelous dress from Elijah and Nik.'_

Mouth gaping, Avery quickly types out replies to both ladies telling them that she has no idea what's going on. Before she moves into her contact's list to find Nik's number, yet another text message comes in but this time it's from Scott.

_'Are we going to a party or something? Isaac, Mom, and I just got these fancy-looking clothes from Elijah and Nik. We have to be ready by 6. And btw, next time you talk to those guys, tell them I said thanks. My dad is secretly fuming because two strange men bought us nice things.'_

"What the hell is going on?" Avery mumbled.

John and Stiles freeze mid-bite, eyes glued to Avery as she taps away at her phone screen before putting it up to her ear. They watch silently as she waits for someone to answer only to see her frown before looking at her phone screen. Once more, she taps at her phone before putting it up to her ear again. And just like the first time, no-one picks up.

Before either Stilinski men could answer, the doorbell rings followed by three quick knocks.

As Avery and Stiles glance at one another without moving a muscle, John rolls his eyes and moves to stand up and answer the door. When their father exits the kitchen, Avery and Stiles finally make a move and follow him. The second the door is swung open, three large yet slim boxes are stacked on top of each other with a black silk ribbon tying them together. Beneath the ribbon is an envelope which John reaches for and immediately opens it up. As his eyes scan the card, he huffs a laugh before handing the card to Avery and pulls the boxes inside.

Eyebrows raised at each other, Stiles and Avery huddle together to read.

_'Dearest Stilinski family, it would be an honor to escort you and friends to dinner tonight. Please wear the chosen outfits and be ready by 6PM. We'll pick you up then.- Elijah and Nik Reynolds'_

Stiles whistles lowly and helps their Dad pick up the boxes. They walk into the living room where John peels off the ribbon only to find Avery's name scribbled on the top box. The box in the middle has Stiles' name and the bottom box has John's. With a shrug to her Dad and brother, Avery pulls the lid off her own box and after pushing aside the white tissue paper, she brings out a little black dress. Avery beams at it and catches her Dad scowling at it and Stiles chuckling at their Dad's reaction.

Stiles opens his up next and pulls out a pair a gray jeans, a white collared shirt with three buttons, and a dark gray military jacket. As Stiles studies his outfit, John opens his box and finds a dark blue blazer, a shirt similar to Stiles', and dark denim washed jeans.

Each Stilinski eyes their chosen outfit with appreciation and there's only one thing on Avery's mind. She really can't wait for this dinner tonight.

..

..

While John had seemed relaxed about the upcoming dinner, Stiles and Avery were anything but. Stiles was worried about going out in public with the Reynolds brothers given his hyperactive nature, and Avery just didn't like not knowing every detail about the upcoming night's events.

Stiles had pestered Avery to get out any and all information from Elijah and Nik- and she had complied- but the brothers were ignoring her.

It had eventually became too late that Avery had to get over it and start prepping for the night.

The boys had let Avery shower first since they knew she was the one who had to prep more. The second Avery was done with her shower and stepped out with a blue towel wrapped around her body and a white towel wrapped around her hair- Stiles complained about seeing her in such undress while John laughed at his son and told him to get over it. While Stiles was busy complaining, John slipped into the shower and Avery quickly locked herself in her room while Stiles then complained about being the last to shower.

..

..

Six o'clock came down on them faster than they anticipated. John and Stiles are both busy sitting in the living and fidgeting with their sleeves that they don't notice the vehicle pull up outside. Avery is still upstairs and adjusting her outfit when the doorbell finally rings.

Glancing at each other, John and Stiles jump to their feet- both men walking to the door to greet their guests.

As soon as the door swings open, Elijah is dressed immaculate in a dark blazer, a white button down shirt, and slacks while Nik is in jeans, a dark henley, and a black military jacket hanging from his frame.

"Excellent." Elijah smiles at them and takes in their dressed state. "Are you ready to go then?" He gestures his head to the side and it's then that John and Stiles realize their vehicle of transportation.

It's a shiny black and silver hummer limousine.

"Uh-huh. Yeah." Stiles squeaks while his Dad continues to gape at the limo. "Avery just needs to.." He trails off now because yeah, he's never been in a limo in all his sixteen years and there's one waiting by the curb to whisk his family away to dinner. "Avery should be.." He tries again only to be cut off by the clicking of heels on their stairs.

"I'm right here." She calls out. "Don't get your knickers in a twist."

Elijah and Nik smile proudly upon seeing her and when Stiles and John look over their shoulder, their mouths drop open.

Avery is standing there at the bottom of the stairs in black lace Louboutin peep toe pumps, a little black dress that stops well above her knees. The shoulder straps are a bit thick but the neckline still swoops down to show off a little more cleavage that John is comfortable with his daughter showing. Her hair hangs down to her shoulders in waves and her eye makeup is done darkly while she added a bit of blush and nude lip gloss.

"What are you all staring at?" She asks while biting the bottom corner of her lip and gripping a black clutch nervously in her hands.

"You, love." Nik smirks at her. "You look beautiful."

"Yes, well, you always did have great taste is dresses." She slowly grins at him. "And I'm assuming you picked it out because Elijah would never pick something so short."

"And with good reason." Elijah finally speaks up. "Your Father is about two seconds away from marching you upstairs and locking you in."

Avery rolls her eyes when she sees John glaring at her dress and when Stiles finally snaps out of his horrified daze of his baby sister dressed like an adult, he laughs at his Dad's expression. "As much as I wanna do the same, we have friends to pick up and a dinner to get to."

"Wise choice, Mr. Stilinski." Elijah claps Stiles on the shoulder. "Shall we?" He asks while taking a step back.

Stiles follows Elijah and Nik as they disappear from the front door and as Avery follows suit, she whistles lowly when she spots their vehicle. "A hummer limo? Classy."

She hears her Dad finally chuckling and when she turns to look at him, he's locking up the door before facing her and offering his arm. She takes it with a smile, walking down the side-walk and noticing that a couple of their neighbors have come outside to gawk at the fancy vehicle. As soon as she is situated in the spacious vehicle, she tells the driver which house of her friends is closest before telling him how to get to the others. With a nod from their driver, they're soon off to pick up the McCalls and Isaac.

..

..

The entire short ride to the McCall residence, John couldn't help but feel a bit ashamed with how his children were acting. Almost immediately, Stiles and Avery pressed every button their fingers were able to reach. Any glare of warning that John sent their way completely went over their head and both Avery and Stiles continued on with quest to press every button available.

With a frustrated sigh, John was slightly amused to hear both Elijah and Nik sigh with him. When he turned to face the brothers, Elijah shrugged with a grin. "You'd think she'd outgrow the impulse to press every button she comes across." He says before turning his amused expression to the twins. "But now I see it just runs in the family."

John snorted with a shake of his head just as Avery clicked a button and the sunroof opened up causing John and Nik to both groan at the squeal that escaped the girl's mouth. Before anyone could tell her to stay seated, Avery scrambled to feet who was closely followed by Stiles as they both shoved their upper bodies through the roof. The two teens laughed as the limo came to a stop but before Elijah and Nik could make it out the door, Avery and Stiles were already hollering.

"Yo, Scott! Come check out our ride!"

"Scooby! Get your ass in gear and bring Isaac with you."

John was so close to face palming but only stopped himself because Elijah and Nik chuckled with their antics. The three men eventually made their way outside the limo to stand outside and greet the three new guests when the front door to the McCall residence opened up.

Scott and Isaac ran out first, their amused grins immediately dropping in shocked awe at the limo while Stiles and Avery laughed joyfully from their spot standing through the sunroof. Scott and Isaac were both wearing slacks- Isaac's being black while Scott was wearing a dark navy blue color. Both had white shirts, Isaac being a fancy button down tucked into his pants while Scott wore a fitted henley shirt, and blazers that matched the color of their pants. As they neared the vehicle and greeted Elijah, Nik, and John- Avery playfully wolf-whistled in appreciation and winked at her boyfriend when he looked up and smirked at her.

The next person to walk out of the McCall residence was a sour-faced man and Scott groaned. "He's still pissed because we're being taken out." He muttered lowly. "And the fact that my Mom looks gorgeous in her dress just pissed him off even more. He's going to make a scene."

John sighed, having dealt with Scott's father in the past but it was Elijah who took charge and stepped forward while putting everyone behind him- almost as if he were protecting them. Scott's father hadn't moved an inch from the doorstep though when Melissa came forth and made her way to them- he followed.

Avery beamed and wolf-whistled yet again. "Dang, look at those legs!"

Melissa laughed wholeheartedly, her legs looking like they went on for miles. Her feet were encased in high-heeled ankle boots, her hair hanging in perfectly tame curls down to the middle of her back with some hanging over the front of her chest. A black- satin looking dressed hugged every curve of her body down to the tops of her knees- the shoulder area and sleeves that ran down to her wrist being black lace.

"I know, right?" Melissa winked at Avery. "Whoever chose this dress has great taste."

Avery grinned and gestured to Elijah who took Melissa's hand in his and brushed a kiss upon her knuckles. "That would be I, Miss, and I must say you do look quite lovely."

Melissa blushed and gave her thanks while Nik greeted her the same- John being the only one to hug her in greeting. As John released her from the hug, he gestured to the limo and let Melissa climb in while Scott's father stood on the sidewalk.

"I've never seen you before." Scott's father finally spoke while narrowing his eyes suspiciously at Elijah. "How do I know my kid and the mother of my child are going to be in good hands when they don't even know where they're going?"

"We're family, you dolt! Of course they're in good hands."

John, since he was seated inside the limo with Melissa, swatted at Avery's legs for her outburst but couldn't help the snort that left his lips. Elijah and Scott's father were busy exchanging words that Scott and Isaac finally tired of it- both teens climbing into the limo next and taking their seats.

With an aggravated sigh, Scott tapped on Avery's calf to gain her attention. When she turned back into the limo and bent down, Scott shook his head. "He isn't going to let us leave until he has every detail about tonight's events and from the sound of it, Elijah isn't going to give any up."

Avery pursed her lips in contemplation as she thought about their situation, her mind whirling with the possibilities of how they could get away. Her mind came to one conclusion but she'd need permission from Scott and Melissa first. "There is one way." She tells them. "But I'm not sure what your thoughts are about this specific topic."

"Which is?" Melissa asks.

"Compulsion." She told them bluntly. When Melissa merely stared at her because she didn't know exactly what it was, Avery told her. "It's pretty much mind control. They can get your ex-husband to believe that the two of you are in good hands and make him not worry. They can even erase his memory of him seeing us off and make him believe that you and Scott went out on your own. They can make him believe whatever it is you want but I won't let them do it until I have your permission."

Melissa bit the corner of her lip in worry as she actually thought about it and Scott wrung his hands. Neither of them saw eye to eye with the man who abandoned them so long ago but they didn't know if they were comfortable with messing with his mind like that. The second the voices from outside started to get louder, Melissa sighed.

"Do it." She shrugged. "Make him believe that Scott and I went out to dinner with friends, and that he shouldn't worry. Tell him to get on with his nightly ritual and to not wait up for us."

Melissa didn't say more after that, choosing to sit back with a tired sigh as she nervously bit at her thumb nail. When Avery turned her attention to Scott, he smiled feebly at her and nodded. Without questioning them, Avery turned towards the opened door and softly called out Nik's name.

When Nik's face appeared in the doorway with a smirk, Avery rolled her eyes. "You heard the woman. Compel him."

Nik's smirk widened even further and once more, he disappeared from sight. Moments later, Elijah and Nik were climbing into the limo and Avery quickly took her seat situated between Stiles and Isaac as Elijah called out that they were to head to the Martin residence next.

..

..

As the four adults conversed and laughed among each other, and Avery ignored the the three boys around her as they continued to look around in awe, she texted Lydia that they were on their way to her home before texting Allison to tell her they'd be there shortly.

Avery had just finished reading her text from Lydia where her friend told her that someone better walk to the door to get her when the limo pulled up to a stop. As the limo's occupants sat there patiently and quietly, Avery rolled her eyes with a laugh.

"Nik, come on." She said as she struggled to maneuver around while also keeping the hem of her dress down. "Let's go get her."

No-one said anything as Avery made it the door without flashing anyone but Nik did allow himself to chuckle when Avery huffed and adjusted the top half of her dress while also pulling down at the hem- only to have it crawl back up. He quickly offered her his arm- Avery taking his elbow with a smile as he led them to the front of the Martin residence where he then proceeded to ring the doorbell.

Seconds later, the door swung open to reveal an elderly woman with copper hair cut in different lengths above her shoulders. The woman seems very well-mannered and strict though when she took a moment to look them over, her gaze softened. With Nik clearing his throat, Avery was brought out of her musings with a shake of her head.

"Oh, um, hello." She bashfully greeted her. "I'm Avery Stilinski, Lydia's friend. Is she ready?"

"She is." The woman answered kindly. "I've heard quite a bit about you, Ms. Stilinski. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. I'm Lydia's Mom. You may call me Mrs. Martin."

"Of course. You too, ma'am." As Mrs. Martin's eyes traveled to Nik, Avery nearly face-palmed again. "I'm sorry." She blurted before gesturing to Nik. "This is Nik. He and his brother were my Guardians before I found my family here in Beacon Hills. They're visiting for the week and decided to take my friends and I out to dinner."

At Avery's explanation, Mrs. Martin's eyes seemed to soften even further. "Well isn't that kind." She smiled. "Thank you for doing this for the kids." She told Nik. "After the month this town's had, it's nice to see them having a bit of fun."

"Of course." Nik bowed his head to her politely. "I apologize in advance seeing as I'm sure we might be out a bit late tonight."

Before Ms. Martin can reply, the sharp clicking of heels against the marble floor cuts her off. "It's totally fine." Lydia waves off Nik's apology. "Dad's away on business and Mom works late tonight."

The moment Lydia came into view, Avery's own jaw dropped. The shimmering dark gray and black dress was totally Lydia's taste. The front hemline of the skirt stopped well above her knees but there seemed to be another skirt attached that fell down to her ankles on either side of her legs and back. It was a sleeveless dress, it's shoulder straps being jeweled lace that wrapped behind her neck and the front neckline dipping dangerously low- even lower than Avery's own.

Lydia practically purred at the attention on her and giggled when Avery continued to ogle her. "Not that I don't enjoy the attention but I'm pretty sure your boyfriend wouldn't like the way you're staring at me."

Nik snorted as Mrs. Martin tried to hide her own amused smile and Avery snapped her mouth shut. When she looked Lydia in the eye, she winked. "I wouldn't be so sure about that. After all, he is a guy."

Lydia rolled her eyes though the twitch of her lips let Avery and Nik know that she was amused. "Okay, well, would someone like to tell me where we're going? I'm dressed rather fabulously with my hair all did up," She pointed out her hairdo which was slick and pulled to the back only to have her red curls cascade down the front of her chest on the left side. "-and I have no idea where we're going."

"All in due time, little one." Nik slowly smirked. "But come now, we must be on our way to pick up our last two remaining guests."

Lydia huffed but took Nik's offered arm and with a goodbye to her Mother, she was quickly seated in the limo with her friends.

..

..

Allison and Chris were the last two to be picked up and when Avery texted her they were near their apartment complex, Allison replied that they would be waiting outside for them.

The closer they drew near, there was a mad dash of teens to stand up through the sunroof but with a single glare, Lydia had the boys backing off as she and Avery took the spot. Melissa didn't bother hiding her boisterous laugh at the effect Lydia Martin had on them and shrugged innocently when her son pouted at her.

Avery and Lydia peeked their heads out of the opening just enough so they could see Chris and Allison and they weren't let down when Chris' mask of indifference faltered upon seeing the limo. Even Allison gaped in awe at their shiny ride but as soon as Avery and Lydia stood to full height, Allison threw her head back and laughed.

"What is this?" She asked as she pointed out the limo when her laughter resided.

Avery shrugged sheepishly. "Elijah and Nik are a bit of snobby prats-  _OW!_ " She yelped when she felt a sharp pinch to her calf. Glaring down back into the vehicle, she caught Nik smirking and Elijah rolling his eyes at his brother. With a huff, Avery stood back to full height and smiled at Allison. "Nice dress, by the way. Totally cute."

"Right?" Allison giggled before giving a small twirl. The skirt of Alli's dress flared out, the rather large flower decorations of fabric swaying in the wind along the hemline. The top half of her dress was fitted and only had one shoulder strap on the left that looked to be made up of the same fabric of flowers at the bottom of her dress- the entire hem (bottom and top) being white while the dress itself was a dark navy blue.

Chris rolled his eyes at his daughter though they all knew it was all in good humor. "You look good, too, Mr. Argent." Avery called out with a small smile. "I bet you twenty bucks it was Nik who picked out your outfit."

"Yeah? How'd you come to that conclusion?" He asked and the door was finally opened as Nik, Elijah, John, and Melissa got out to let Allison crawl in with her friends.

"Because only Nik would dress you in a henley. Elijah would have gone for a fancy dress shirt."

Chris snorted before smoothing down the black blazer jacket they had given him. "Yes, well, I'm more comfortable in this." He says before looking to Nik. "Thanks."

"It's no problem." Nik assured him. "And now that we're all together, what do you lot say to climbing on in so we can make it to our reservations on time."

Everyone nodded with a small laugh before climbing in and it was only then after they were settled down in their seats and the driver took off did Nik and Elijah finally indulge everyone with where they were going.

The two brothers told them that in celebration of the McCall and Hale Pack being triumphant in taking down such a powerful enemy, they were being treated to a fancy dinner with one another at  _Sicilly's_. Everyone had nearly gaped at hearing where they were going to be dining- the place being a very expensive Italian restaurant that only people with money could afford. When Avery pointed out that the Hale Pack- at least what was left of it- wasn't present, Nik and Elijah assured her that they'd be getting in contact soon enough with them to see if there was anything they needed help with. Derek, Cora, and Peter- in their eyes- were heroes along with everyone currently in the limo and they'd be getting a gift of their own soon enough.

As their conversation makes a quick detour to the events of  _that night_ , word slips about Lydia being a Banshee which of course catches Nik's attention. They briefly try to work out her family's background but Lydia tells them nothing of importance and they let it drop. After Lydia's background is out, the Argent's go next. There's a tense moment when Elijah and Nik realize they're Hunters but after Allison assures them of their family motto changing, Elijah can't help but pull out flutes of champagne and make a toast to new beginnings.

After that was settled, the adults start their own conversation for the duration of the ride while the teens all took turns swapping seats and taking pictures with one another.

..

..

The drive to Sicilly's was a little under thirty minutes but no-one was bothered by the drive. Chris had quickly grew accustomed to Elijah and Nik's presence when he learned they had rules among themselves and didn't kill for fun or food, and was eventually openly laughing with everyone.

When they finally pulled up to the restaurant, the group went quiet as they stared through the tinted windows to see a line of people already waiting by the front entrance to be let in. They pulled into the valet area and soon stop so that the back door they were to climb out of is right there in line with the front entrance.

"Well, at least we won't look out of place." Lydia mumbles as she took in the other guests' fancy dresses- some skirts falling down to their ankles while others stopped right at their knees. There were even some fur coats wrapped around shoulders out there.

Elijah and Nik grin at her attempt to lighten the mood but Avery's the only one to chuckle- and nervously at that because now everyone in line is staring to see who gets out of the limo.

The driver finally makes it the back door and opens it. "Heads up, lovelies." Nik smirks at them while wagging his eyebrows. "Don't let them intimidate you."

Nik and Elijah climb out first, cheeky grins tilting the corners of their lips upward as the whispering fires off around them. Heaving a sigh, John exits next though he can't help but chuckle when he sees everyone staring. He turns back to the limo, holding out a hand which Melissa grasps as he helps her out. Once Melissa is steady on her own two feet and adjusts the skirt of her dress, John offers his arm and they walk together to stand behind Nik and Elijah who are talking- compelling- the Hostess to hurry and get their table.

Chris soon exits, amusement passing over his face as he sees a couple of women look him up and down. Isaac climbs out of the limo next, his werewolf hearing picking up on the giggling and pleased whispers of the younger ladies but they soon turn to jealousy as he reaches back into the limo to help out Avery. The whispers turn harsh and though he doesn't let them sour his mood, he does the next best thing by publicly and quickly pecking Avery's lips before wrapping an arm around her waist and leading them towards their group.

When Avery turns back around, she sees her twin offering his elbow to a very gleeful Lydia and a sheepish Scott doing the same to a bashful Allison. Avery mentally coos at her friends and before they know it, they're being led inside and seated around a rectangular table.

Nik and Elijah take the two ends with Melissa and John seated on either side of Elijah, and Chris and Avery on either side of Nik. Isaac is of course seated next to Avery, Lydia next to Isaac, and Stiles in between Lydia and John. On the opposite side of the table, Allison is seated next to her Dad with Scott seated between Allison and his Mom.

Almost immediately, one waiter passes out their menus while another deposits a glass of ice water with a lemon wedge in front of everyone. As one waiter leaves, the other stands silently behind Elijah with a pen and a pad of paper to take their drink orders.

Elijah and Nik both order red wine and after a bit of encouragement- John, Chris, and Melissa order the same. The boys order glasses of soda, Avery gets sweet tea, and Lydia is happy with her water and lemon.

As they start looking over the food selection, Avery can see Stiles, her Dad, Isaac, and Scott looking wary about whatever it was that caught their attention. Catching Elijah's eye, she frowned momentarily before he cleared his throat and assured them all to order whatever they want and how ever much they want.

When the waiter reappears with their drinks, he takes his place behind Elijah once more before people start spouting out their meal of choice. Stiles and Scott were the only two to get spaghetti and meatballs with garlic sticks while everyone else went the fettuccine route. Melissa, Avery, and Elijah got shrimp- John, Chris, and Nik got theirs with strips of beef- and Lydia, Allison, and Isaac got chicken.

While they patiently waited for their food and pleasantly sipped at their drinks, Lydia's audible sigh caught the attention of her friends. "Guys, Halloween is only days away and we've yet decided on what we're going to do." She frowned. "I usually throw a party but it's too late to plan and last second costumes are usually horrendous."

"Please." Stiles snorted. "You are the Queen of last minute party planning. I'm sure you can come up with something."

Lydia's frown twitches as she frights down a smile but nods nonetheless. "Even if I were to plan a party, we still have to brainstorm costume ideas."

"Ms. Martin." Nik speaks up. "I believe my brother and I have the solution to your Halloween problem." Everyone's attention- including that of the parents and Elijah- turn to Nik. "You see, in New Orleans, my brother and I are known for the fantastic parties we throw."

"Showoffs." Avery suddenly muses. With just those words, she already knows where this is headed. Nik's attention is suddenly on her and with a wink, Avery huffs a laugh as she sits back in her chair.

"As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted," He mock glared at Avery. "-is that we're known for our parties. And since we're here in Beacon Hills for Halloween, I ran the idea by my brother about a Ball."

"A ball?" Stiles mutters. "Like those fancy shindigs with suits and gowns?"

"Yes." Elijah answered for his brother. "But since it is Halloween, it's a Masquerade Ball." Lydia's sudden squeal of delight made Avery and Allison grin in amusement and anticipation. "Suits, dresses, masks, and shoes have all been picked out for everyone so there's no need to worry about money or be frantic about choosing something appropriate to wear."

Lydia claps happily in childlike glee but it's Melissa who speaks up. "Now when you say everyone.."

"I mean everyone." Elijah turned towards her with a smile. "Even you have a dress, a mask, and shoes waiting to be delivered to your home."

"That's quite presumptuous." Chris stated. "How do you know she or the Sheriff don't work that night?"

"Because the Sheriff has enough deputies to cover for him and the man is in need of a vacation." Nik drawled. "As well as the lovely Melissa." He raised his glass towards her before winking. "And if anyone has a problem, well then they can speak to myself or Elijah." He then turned his attention back to Chris. "Don't worry, Mr. Argent. You're invited as well."

Chris didn't say anything right away but he did shrug. "While I feel honored to be invited to one of your infamous parties, I have somewhere to be that night. I'm sorry but I won't be able to make it."

"Fair enough." Nik nodded. "We'll be sure to keep a close eye on your daughter."

Chris could only nod because he knew that Allison wouldn't miss it if she had any say so.

..

..

Their food was quickly brought out and in between bites of their food, the teens talked about the upcoming party. Allison and Lydia were excited to see their dresses and masks, and Avery was just excited to have her family and friends experience one of the Reynolds' parties.

Every now and then, Avery would feel a gently squeeze on her knee and when she'd glance at the culprit, Isaac would simply grin at her before digging back into his food.

In between their small talk and laughs, the food was eaten and drinks were drunk. There was not a single plate with leftovers on it- including the petite females of the group- and when it came time for the bill, Elijah wouldn't let anyone see it. He quickly snatched it up with speed that no-one other than his brother could match and placed a card in it without even looking at the price.

And after a quick signature, the group was herded back into the limo where Nik then proceeded to tell the driver to head to a nearby park they had passed when they first came in. When everyone seemed puzzled about stopping by the park, Nik told them it was too beautiful of a night to pass up without a brisk walk in the park with such excellent company. When he asks for any objections about taking the walk, Stiles quickly raised his hand but Avery slapped it down with a grin.

..

..

"You were right. It is a beautiful night." Melissa murmured as she held onto John's blazer loosely around her shoulders.

The night was beautiful as she said, not a cloud in the sky to obstruct their view of the twinkling stars. The air had a chilly bite to it- hence the reason Melissa was wearing John's blazer, Lydia was wearing Elijah's, Allison wore Scott's, and Avery wore Isaac's. There was not a single bug singing in the night nor a person around to interrupt their peace.

As they continued to walk around, Scott and Stiles kept slyly grinning at their parents but with one single glare from Avery, they quickly put a stop to it.

"About this party." Lydia suddenly mused causing Elijah and Nik to peer over their shoulders. "Who's all invited?"

"Anyone you can think of." Elijah told her. "We have a few friends driving up from New Orleans so if there's anyone you want to invite, feel free."

"Thank you." She smiled kindly. "We all have a mutual friend and I'm sure if he doesn't get invited to the biggest party Beacon Hills is about to endure, and finds out we all attended, he won't speak to us for a month or two."

Elijah chuckled while Allison, Scott, Stiles, Avery, and Isaac all glanced at Lydia. "Danny." They said in unison which caused the elders to laugh.

"Yep." Lydia smirked.

"But if we invite Danny," Scott nervously voiced. "-he'll wanna bring Ethan."

"And wherever Ethan goes," Allison suddenly realized where Scott was going with this. "-Aiden goes."

Lydia didn't see anything wrong with this but after a moment's hesitation, all eyes- sans the elders- swiveled to Avery. "What?" She bristled. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Uh, maybe because you have beef with him." Stiles exclaimed. "You're the one who attacked him, remember?"

Elijah and Nik merely raised their eyebrows in amusement while Chris looked at her curiously. "Pft. That? That's behind us. Invite them if you want." She shrugged. "We're civil enough around each other."

"Excellent." Nik clapped loudly, the sound echoing through the trees surrounding the park. "Now that that's ou-"

Nik gasped- cutting himself off as everyone turned to see what his problem was. They see that his hand is clamped to the side of his neck, something thin and shiny protruding through his fingers but he's not saying anything. His eyes glow golden yellow in the dark, his veins slithering the surface, and it's only when he staggers to the side does everyone go tense and worried.

Elijah is immediately by his brother's side. "Nik? What's going on?"

Nik snarls in anger causing Scott and Isaac to instantaneously wolf out against their will. When they realize that Nik's snarl made them turn, they easily shake away their transformation before giving the brother's their full attention.

When Nik pulls his hand away, he pulls out a dart from his neck and within seconds, he's flat on his back- unconscious.

Lydia yelps in fight and Avery's eyes bulge at what she's just witnessed. Elijah looks flabbergasted but he immediately pulls himself to full height before looking out and around at their surroundings. "You have no idea who you're messing with!" He calls out, his voice echoing eerily throughout the night. John and Chris don't think twice about pulling Melissa and Allison between them. Stiles herds Lydia and Avery to form a tight group with Scott and Isaac on the outside in case a fight breaks out. Elijah is the only one standing alone though the anger is easily recognizable. "Come on out, young one. I know you're a vampire! Your heart beat is slower than someone al-"

Elijah cuts out now though this time, there's no dart in his neck. Instead, there's a figure standing directly in front of him with a stake embedded in Elijah's chest.

"No!" Lydia and Melissa both scream, tears already streaming down their faces.

Chris and John push closer to the girls, their heads whipping around to see what was going on. Stiles clutched at his sister's hand, gripping her hand tightly in his own as Scott and Isaac wolfed out and advanced.

There was no need to be gentle once they wrestled the stranger to the ground, the vampire hissing his anger and snapping at the boys with his fangs. Throughout all the commotion, Avery stayed mute as the shock slowly faded from her features until there was nothing left but a fierce warrior looking for revenge.

The moment she took a step forward and was tugged back by Stiles' hand, Avery immediately shrugged free from her brother's hold. "Avery, don't."

She didn't say anything, instead she squared her shoulders and masked her features as she walked up to the vampire, Scott, and Isaac. "Let him stand." She voiced loud and clear. Scott and Isaac frowned at her, their features fading away until she was faced with a set of yellow eyes and red eyes staring at her. Slowly but sure, Isaac and Scott stood with their grips never letting up on the vampire. "Who are you?" She voiced right away, her hands clasped behind her back. The vampire struggled in his captor's hold, his stringy- somewhat shaggy- dark hair clinging to his forehead. "Well?"

"Fuck off." He snarled. "I don't answer to low-life humans."

There was an audible snap before the vampire groaned in pain, Isaac smirking in delight when the vampire turned to glare at him for breaking his arm. "Stupid and young." Avery reasoned just as the vampire turned his glare on her. "That explains your actions against your king. Against your superiors."

"I answer to no-one!"

"And that right there is your fourth mistake of the night." Avery told him as she reined in her anger. "Tell me, vampire, what's your name?" The mysterious vampire struggled before spitting at Avery's feet. "Hmm." She hummed. "John Smith it is then." The vampire's brows pulled together in confusion before he got over it and continued to struggle. It was like a switch was flipped in Avery as she drew herself up, chest puffed with one hand held behind her back, the other hanging limply at her side. "As the recognized Princess of House Reynolds from Louisiana, you John Smith, are sentenced to death."

Before anyone had a chance to blink or even protest, Avery's arms shot forward with her hands gripping either side of the vampire's face and snapped his neck.

With the shock of what they just witnessed, Scott and Isaac dropped the 'dead' vampire in a heap on the ground.

As Avery peered down at the body, the only person who didn't seem disturbed by her actions was Chris. When she finally caught the shocked expression of her Father, Avery seemed to have deflated. "I'm sorry you had to see that." She told him honestly. "But it had to be done. He's not dead, at least not yet, but death by my hands is a whole lot better than what Nik would have put him through."

John gulped. "And what would have Nik-"

"Don't ask." Stiles blurts causing his dad to turn his attention on him. "It's better if you don't know. Nik can be ruthless."

John paled but nodded, he and everyone else slowly backing away from one another now that the threat was taken care of. When they turn back to Avery, they follow her gaze to a grayish looking Elijah who lay on the ground, dark veins bulging from his colorless skin.

"Oh, honey. I'm so sorry." Melissa murmurs when she finally finds her voice.

"For what?" Avery asks, her eyes seeking out Ms. McCall. Melissa blinks rapidly, her gaze darting from Avery to Elijah's still form. "That?" Avery then scoffs. "Don't be." She says as she walks over to Elijah now, bending down and yanking out the stake. With a swift kick to Elijah's leg, everyone gasps. "Wake up, you wanker! Stop being dramatic."

"Avery!" John scolds. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to wake him up." She answers as she now walks over to the vampire whose neck she snapped. "The thing about Originals," She says as she stops by the vampire's body. "-is that they can't be killed like any other vampire. To take down an Original, you need a special stake. Not some ruddy plain one that you can make on you own." With lightning fast speed, the stake in Avery's hands is soon embedded in the chest cavity of the young vampire. "Now he's dead." She says as she stands back up, clapping her hands together to get off any lingering dirt.

Everyone watches on in horrified fascination as the vampire's skin grays right before their eyes, dark veins slithering to the surface in a bulging manner.

There's a moment's silence as everyone stares down at the vampire before someone gasping for air catches their attention. They look towards the place where it came from only to find Elijah sitting up as the gray color melts away from his skin. Clearing his throat awkwardly, he carefully stands before brushing at his pants to make any lingering dirt and debris fall away. When he glances behind Avery, he sees the vampire dead on the ground and nods his understanding.

"While all this has been fascinating in some ways more than others, what are we going to do about Nik?" Scott asks.

Everyone then turns to Nik's unconscious form, Elijah getting to his brother's side within the blink of an eye. Avery starts making her way towards him when she sees him bend down to pick up the alien dart, and when he makes a move to sniff it- Avery slaps his hands away.

"It took down Nik, you prat. Maybe someone else should sniff it. Someone who's not a vampire or werewolf." Elijah takes her words to heart, immediately offering up the dart to her. As Avery sighs and takes a whiff of the dart- her nose crinkles in distaste. "Peppermint  _and_ Lavender."

"How does that," Chris points to the dart in Avery's hand. "-take down that." He then points to Nik.

"It's the two substances most lethal to his kind." Avery mumbles. "Since Nik is both vampire and werewolf, whoever that vampire was did their research- though not nearly enough- and combined both vervain and wolfsbane." The group falls silent as they drink in what Avery just told them. Another moment of silence passes before Avery starts to chuckle. "Oh man, Nik's going to be pissed when he wakes up."

"Indeed." Elijah agrees before bending down and picking up his brother, hoisting him up on his shoulder. "Shall we get out of here before anyone stumbles upon us?"

Everyone seems skeptical, including Chris who's staring at the body of the deceased vampire but it's John who speaks up first. "What about the body? Someone's bound to find him."

"They will." Elijah nods along as he starts to walk. "But by the time they do, the sun will be up and will burn his body to ashes. If anything, just grab the stake. It has Avery's fingerprints."

Avery starts to follow Elijah wordlessly, leaving everyone else behind. Quickly exchanging glances with one another, Isaac quickly leans down and plucks the stake from the vampire's chest before following after his girlfriend.

Life sure was interesting around the Reynolds brothers.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=104099780) for some of their outfits.  
> I know, I know. Avery's little death speech was a bit comical but hey.. Nik and Elijah are royalty over in New Orleans. And Avery is still considered family to them so she can still pass on sentences to those who wrong them.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Outfits for the Masquerade Ball can be found [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/masquerade_ball_we_might_fall/set?id=104437808) and [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/masquerade_ball_pt_we_might/set?id=104437891).

The days leading up to Halloween were a bit of a blur.

John and Melissa made sure to put in over-time at work so neither of their co-workers made a fuss when they requested Halloween night off. School was as normal as can be- students still gossiping about Isaac and Avery, questioning whether or not the Argent girl and McCall boy were ever going to give it another go, and questioning the closeness between Stiles and Lydia even though she was dating Aiden.

The group took the nosy-ness in stride, ignoring what was being said and just enjoying each other's company without any drama. One day during lunch, Lydia managed to finally tell Danny of the upcoming Masquerade Ball. He had been excited of course, Danny telling them that he's already heard about it but was just wondering how to get invited to it. Apparently, several shop owners around town and their families had been invited- the children of the families gossiping quickly about being invited since it seemed like the Hosts of the party were very hush-hush.

Avery had laughed at that, telling Danny that Elijah and Nik were indeed private people but they just wanted numbers at the party so they didn't care who was invited since they were leaving town afterward anyway. When Danny asked just how it was she was on first name basis with the brothers, she came clean and told him that they were family. Not by blood but they were family nonetheless.

Danny had then asked if he was able to bring a date and Avery assured him he could. She told him just to make sure their attire was formal since it was a Ball and that if they needed masks, Elijah and Nik usually had extras on hand and that she could scrounge up a few if need be. Ethan had appeared from thin air then, thanking Avery for her generosity. When asked kindly if Aiden was going too, Ethan shook his head.

While Aiden had wanted to go, his and Ethan's departure from Beacon Hills was coming fast and he was doing everything to put some space between himself and Lydia. Both of them were wary of long distant relationships and even though Danny and Ethan were going to give a go, Aiden and Lydia were less positive that things could still work out between them.

Avery had frowned at the news, wondered why Lydia hadn't said anything but eventually let it go. Lydia was a tight-lipped person and if she wanted Avery to know, she'd tell her in due time. So for now, Avery let it go and worried about finding her own boyfriend in the school hallways.

* * *

The day of Halloween had finally come and Avery was a ball of nerves. As were Allison and Lydia.

Elijah and Nik had told them that their outfits were to be delivered to their homes but they had yet to receive anything, and that was very unlike the brothers.

When Avery finally worked up the nerve after two to call Elijah and ask what the hold-up was, he apologized immediately and told her that the decorators for the night's event had distracted them all. But to make up for their forgetfulness, he told Avery to round up the women and men and to bring them his and Nik's home so they could all shower and get ready there. He even hired a last minute hair stylist and makeup artist for the girls as an apology.

Avery obliged right away though she told him it was fine and there was no need for an apology but she was grateful for the stylists because she didn't know what she was going to do with her hair. Elijah had laughed and before he bid her goodbye, he told her that they were to stay away from the back yard and once they were up on the second level of his home, they were to stay there until called down.

She saw nothing wrong with his requests, bid him goodbye, and then worked on rounding up all the troops so they could start getting ready. With so many people, the extra rooms and bathrooms were exactly what they needed to get ready together.

..

..

After many phone calls, a bit of persuasion, and directions to Elijah and Nik's- everyone was soon on their way to the Original's current place of home. Stiles drove both Avery and John to their destination, Avery cackling the entire way because this was the first time Stiles had driven their Dad anywhere and John didn't like the way Stiles drove. As they pulled up the home, Avery's chuckles fell away as Stiles and John stared up at the home in awe.

The home was pushed back near the woods, well away from prying eyes. The wide and long driveway was lined with small boulders and square brick pillars which held large Jack-o-Lanterns that led up to a lavish brick two-story home with a variety of pointed roofs. Circular roofs which ended in points gave off a castle vibe- the numerous windows helping the vibe along as well- made this home unique in the small town of Beacon Hills. As the Stilinski family stepped out of the Jeep, Avery realized that the vibrant green grass looked as if it was just planted recently. Eyes narrowing in suspicion, she couldn't help but wonder how it was the brother's came across this place.

To the left of the archway for the front door, they spotted a rather large square opening that looked as if it led to the back of the home but fake spider webs and a black curtain blocked their view. As Avery's eyes snapped back towards the archway to the front door, she then realized that the shrubbery there all had fake spider web entangled in the branches and leaves.

Whistling low in appreciation, Avery turned towards her twin who was still ogling the place. "Are we at Hogwarts?"

Snorting in amusement, Avery shook her head. "I told you they're showoffs. At least there's no fountain this time."

"Yes, well, Nik did put up a good argument."

John and Stiles whirled around at the sound of Elijah's voice, Avery being the only one who wasn't startled by his appearance. "I take it this is actually your home then? It's not just yours for the time being?"

"Guilty as charged." Elijah smirked at her. "I apologize for lying but Nik wanted to surprise you. When we found out you were leaving us, we wanted a home of our own near you for when we decided to visit. It was just done a couple days before we came in."

Instead of getting mad, Avery just laughed. "You guys spend your money way too easily."

"Yes, well, you would too if you had a thousand years to save up."

Stiles squeaked at hearing the possibility of just how much money they had and John happily thumped his son hard on the back to help him out. Before anything else could be said, the sound of motorcycle engines pierce the air.

An amused Scott is riding side-by-side with Isaac and a terrified Melissa is clutching desperately to her son as they roll to a stop. No-one says anything as they stop, everyone fighting off grins when Melissa- who had her face pressed to Scott's back- realizes they finally stopped at their destination and eagerly hops off.

"Oh come on!" Avery giggles. "It's not that bad."

Melissa calms her breathing and playfully glares at her. "Says you. You've been riding for a while. I didn't expect my son to actually drive me."

"Yeah, well, Dad was being annoying again." He shrugged. "I just wanted to leave already."

Melissa rolled her eyes though she managed to grin and take no offense to Scott calling his Dad annoying. The man was gone for most of their life so she wasn't going to hold it against him when Scott didn't forgive the man straight away. Hell, even she hadn't forgiven him but that didn't stop him from sticking around.

As Melissa, Scott, and Isaac's attention got taken with the house, the remaining two of their group pulled up together in Lydia's car. Lydia and Allison quickly parked, the two girls getting out as their eyes lit up in appreciation of the home as well.

After Lydia had her fair share of ogling, she quickly sought out Avery's attention. "I talked with Danny and he and Ethan couldn't find masks. Can you help them out?"

Turning to Elijah, Avery quirked an eyebrow at him. "You have extras, right? I have two guys coming in later who don't have masks."

"Of course." Elijah nodded politely. "I'll bring them to you once we get you all settled in the rooms you'll be dressing in."

Avery beamed at him just as Elijah gestured for the front door. "Ladies first."

Avery hooked arms with Melissa, pulling Scott's Mom along with her as Allison and Lydia followed closely behind. John and Isaac were right behind the the girls followed by Stiles and Scott, and Elijah pulled up the rear as the shut the door behind them.

Inside the home was just as amazing as the outside. While Avery figured the floors would be polished wood, she was surprised to see dark gray marble shining below her feet. The room they were first in was circular- white stone pillars holding up the second level. There were a couple of doorways around the room- one of which Nik appeared from before he gestured towards the marble staircase with a grin.

Looking upward, the group realized just how high the ceiling was, a small chandelier hanging in the middle with it's soft glow illuminating the room. The banisters are wrapped with yet more spiderweb as well as orange and purple lights.

Once they reach the top of the staircase, Nik gestures to the left. "Gentlemen, if you will follow me, I'll show you to your room and your clothes for tonight. Ladies," Nik turned to give them his attention. "-if you follow 'lijah, he'll take you to yours."

The boys followed Nik without a word as did the girls as they trailed after Elijah. Upon entering the room, Avery let out a low whistle. The room was a navy blue, it's ceiling black with various built-in lights scattered around the ceiling. To the left, there was a set of double doors- which Avery immediately pegged it as a walk-in closet as well as a queen-sized bed with mountains of pillows, a black and white floral print comforter, and a black lace curtain canopy above the bed hanging off the four wooden posts. There was a bay window and window seat stacked with more pillows- the window more than likely giving off a view of the back yard but since they couldn't see it just yet, Avery didn't attempt to pull back the curtains.

To the right of the room, there was another door which was slightly ajar and gave off a view of a tiled floor- the bathroom. There was a ginormous mahogany vanity desk against the wall that held four small boxes and a metal rack sitting beside the vanity with four dress bags hanging from it's bar and four boxes sitting beneath the hanging dresses.

"There are four bathrooms total upstairs." Elijah startles them out of the silence. "You get two of them while the gentlemen get the other two." He tells them. "Two of you can shower in here while the other two go next door and use the bathroom in there. There are robes hanging in each bathroom and you are to use those after you shower so the stylists can do your hair and makeup before you don your outfits."

"Thank you, Mr. Reynolds." Melissa is the first to speak. "This is quite generous of you."

"It's no problem, I assure you." He smiles kindly at her before turning his gaze on Avery. "There are drawers in the closet behind you with lady," He clears his throat suddenly, a blush staining his cheeks. "-with lady under wear. Don't ask how we got your sizes because you and I both know Nik can be scarily accurate at times like this." Melissa and Allison are the only two girls to blush while Avery and Lydia snort. "Your dresses are all strapless- sans Melissa's who has one shoulder sleeve to her dress- so all the appropriate attire is there." Again, Melissa and Allison blush but Elijah pays them no mind as he starts to head for the bedroom door. "I suggest two shower right away so when your stylists get here, I can send them up to get started while the other two shower. Nik and I will send someone up to get you when we're ready for you to come down."

"Aye, aye, Captain." Avery mock salutes him while Allison, Lydia, and Melissa call out their 'thanks'.

..

..

Crowding into the closet after Elijah's departure, each of them picked out a set of bra and panties. Melissa was the only one snort at seeing all the lace but happily dug in with the three teens to find something she liked.

While Lydia and Melissa were the first two to shower, Avery and Allison jumped on the bed and laid down side-by-side until it was their turn. In the midst of their talk about whether or not they should take a peek at their dresses to find out which one belonged to who, two females- each with blonde hair and bags in their hands- entered the room.

Allison didn't pay them much mind and it was Avery who watched their every move as they carefully set their bags on the desk of the vanity. As one female started to open up her bags to take out hair products, a curling iron, and a flat iron- the other female turned sharply only to yelp in surprise.

Avery raised her eyebrows in amusement at her, the other female finally turning around to see what the commotion was. "W-we're sorry." Female number one spoke up, the girl with short platinum blonde hair that was in straight choppy layers that stopped short of her chin. "We didn't know you were in here yet."

"It's okay." Avery waved her off. "No harm done. We're just waiting for our friends to get out of the shower so we can head in next."

As female number one seemed to sigh in relief, female number two- the one with her dirty blonde hair pulled into a ponytail with her bangs framing her face- stepped forward with a small grin. "I'm Patricia. That's Rebekah." She said as she gestured to her friend. "We'll be your stylists-"

"For the evening." Avery smiled at her. "Elijah filled us in." She said with an impish shrug.

As both the newcomers relaxed with Avery's carefree and relaxed tone, Rebekah cleared her throat gaining Avery and Allison's attention. "Have you seen your dress yet?" She gestured to the rack behind her. "They're really beautiful. Especially the masks." She beamed excitedly.

"No." Allison shook her head with a laugh. "We don't even know whose is who's. Elijah just told us to shower and dress in robes while we get our hair and makeup done."

"Yes, well, worry not." Patrica piped up. "We know for a fact that each set of boxes as well as the dress bags are in alphabetical order according to their owner." She said as she gestured to each set of items before turning to the girls on the bed. "So we have Allison, Avery, Lydia, and Melissa. Who are you?"

"Allison." "Avery." Both girls introduce themselves.

As the four girls converse, Allison and Avery learn a little bit about their stylists such as where they went to school and just how long they've actually been styling for. There's a moment when they lapse once more into silence but they're quickly saved when Melissa steps out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her head of hair and a lavender silk robe tied around her body. As Melissa gets introduced to their stylist, Lydia soon enters in a similar fashion to Melissa though her robe is silky pink.

While Melissa and Lydia get to know Patrica and Rebekah, Allison takes the bathroom in the room while Avery goes next door to shower.

The girls aren't paying much attention to time but by the time Avery walks back into the room with her own black silk robe hiding her form from people's view, Lydia and Melissa already have their hair done. Lydia's hair is straightened and a majority of it is pulled back into a tight ponytail with a decent portion of her hair hanging freely and framing the right side of her face with a slight curl to it's ends. And when Rebekah saw just how lovely Melissa's curls were, she didn't want to lose that so she quickly dried her hair and put some hair product in so her wavy curls wouldn't lose volume throughout the night.

While Avery and Allison waited their turn, Patrica and Rebekah got started on Lydia and Melissa's makeup. Melissa's was kept very neutral- just the basic foundation applied to hide any blemishes with a quick sweep of blush to her cheekbones and a layer of a deep pink lipstick to make her lips stand out. Lydia, on the other hand, had the basic foundation applied before the brush of blush swept along her cheekbones, a hint of dark eye shadow, and ruby red lipstick to make her lips pop.

When them two were done, they happily switched spots with Allison and Avery. Rebekah raked her fingers through Allison's hair as she decided what she wanted to do. Patrica immediately set out to dry Avery's hair and when it was done, Avery found her waves had been left alone though the sides of her hair had been loosely pulled back and pinned in place. As Patricia spritzed some type of hair product in to hold it, Avery turned towards Allison who was having her hair straightened before being slightly waved. After some hair product was applied, Allison's hair looked as if it were in choppy layers that framed her faced perfectly.

Makeup came next, Avery and Allison's makeup being similar. Both had the foundation applied though Allison's blush and eye shadow was a bit darker than Avery's. While Avery had nude lipstick applied, Allison had a light burgundy applied.

Once the girls took some time to coo over their makeup and hair, Patrica pulled off a dress bag from the rack while Rebekah gathered up the box below said dress bag from the floor and another from the vanity.

"Okay." Patricia smiled as she delicately held the bag. "Time for dresses!"

Melissa, Avery, Allison, and Lydia all beamed as Rebekah moved towards the bed with her two boxes. "Up first, we need Melissa to strip out of her robe and shimmy into her LBD."

Allison and Lydia giggled as Melissa clutched at the ties to her robe but seeing as they were all of the same sex, Melissa threw caution to the wind and let her robe fall. "LBD?" Avery's brows furrowed in confusion.

"Little black dress." Patricia answered her with a smile as she unzipped the bag in her hands.

The dress inside was indeed a little black dress with only one shoulder whose sleeve ran all the way down to her wrist. Patricia immediately set out to unzip the back of the dress and passed it to Melissa who stepped inside, the fabric of the dress clinging desperately to her curves. As Patricia zipped Melissa up and quickly refixed her hair, Rebekah smiled as she opened up one of the boxes and pulled out a pair of black side-zip peep toe boots, and handed them to their owner. Melissa leaned against the bed with a grin as she slipped her feet inside her shoes and by the time she was standing on her own two feet and smoothing down the hem of her dress, Rebekah was standing in front of her with a gold and black mask sitting in the palms of her hands.

There were intricate black and gold swirls along the entirety of the mask which would cover her eyes to the tops of her cheeks and the tip of her nose, with a bit of lace along the outside of the mask. As Melissa took it and held it to her face, Patrica stood behind her as she gathered up the black ribbons of the mask and tied it in place.

Lydia was next to be dressed, followed by Avery, and then Allison. Each female cooed over their dress, masks, and shoes- the three teens squealing when they were all dolled up and masked for the night.

Lydia's dress was a strapless, form-fitted top with a tulle skirt in teal and an underlying pale yellow that flared from her waist to knees. There was a flower design on the left of her chest with peacock feathers below it and her mask was that of black laser cut venetian masquerade mask with sparkling rhinestones.

Avery's dress was a bit more vintage- the strapless dress being a rustic yellow lace with a wide black lace belt and black lace trimmings. Her mask was a metal black laser cut venetian half mask that was inspired by the Phantom of the Opera.

And lastly, Allison's dress was a vintage black and white floral strapless. The top was form-fitting and the skirt flared out in a poof around her knees. Her mask was also a black laser cut though her mask didn't cover anything besides her eyes.

As the four of them squealed and laughed and praised each other's outfit- Patricia and Rebekah silently took their leave from the room. They hadn't paid much attention to time but when Avery's phone chimed from the bed and she stumbled in her heels to go retrieve it, she realized it was nearing seven at night.

"Who is it?" Lydia immediately asks while Avery opens up the text.

"Danny." She replied as she scanned over the text. "He and Ethan were wondering what time they should show up and where to pick up their masks. But I don't know when so now I have to beckon Elijah."

Without a glance at her friends, she walked over to the bedroom door and cracked it open before bellowing out his name. With a grin, she teetered back to her friends before the door fully opened and Elijah stepped in dressed in a dark suit and undershirt with a dark navy tie.

It was the first time any of them sans Avery had seen Elijah look annoyed but the moment he opened his mouth and his eyes swept across them- he snapped his mouth shut and did a double take before grinning. "I must say, ladies, you all look extraordinarily beautiful tonight." Everyone smiled happily, murmuring their 'thanks' as he then turned to Avery. "What seems to be the problem that has you shouting like a lunatic?"

Avery didn't even bat an eye at the lunatic comment. "One of my guests is wondering when he and his boyfriend should show? What time should I give him?"

"Festivities will start at eight. Is that all?"

"Nope." She smiled as she quickly replied to Danny's text, telling him to show up a tad bit earlier so they could mingle together beforehand. "Danny and Ethan need masks. More than likely, they'll want to put theirs on before mingling with everyone else."

Elijah pursed his lips in contemplation before nodding. "There is security that will standing by the archway outside that leads into the backyard where everyone is entering. I'll leave two masks with him so just tell your friends to give their names and he'll hand their masks over."

"Sweet. Thanks, Elijah! Now when can we go downstairs or see the guys? Are they dressed?"

"The boys are currently downstairs and gorging themselves on candy much to Nik's amusement." Elijah told them with a quick twitch of his lips. "And as for your first question, you all can appear shortly. I'll send someone to retrieve you in a few moments."

Avery was ready to argue before something caught her attention. "Yeah but- hey! Where did Rebekah and Patricia go?"

Melissa snorted at Avery's attention span before Elijah answered her. "The stylists have done their job and took their leave. It was what they were paid to do."

"Yeah but I kind of liked them." Avery frowned. "They were nice."

"I'm sure they were." Elijah bowed his head. "Now if that is all, I must go ensure that my brother and your brother are staying out of trouble."

Avery laughed but let him leave. "Okay. We'll be waiting and if you take longer than thirty minutes to retrieve us, we'll march our own asses down there!"

The only answer she received was the resounding click of the door shutting.

..

..

After a good ten minutes of keeping themselves occupied, a knock finally sounded at the door. Sighing in relief, Avery went to open the door only to be met by four people standing outside the room. Squealing in surprise and delight, Avery hopped in place before launching herself at the two males and two females. "Oh my god! You guys are here. When did you get here?!"

Chuckling as they merely smiled at her enthusiasm, Avery grabbed the two females by hand and dragged them into the room before they could answer. The two females looked the complete opposite- the brunette being thinner and taller than the slightly curvier and shorter blonde.

The brunette who looked to have a mischievous twinkle in her warm brown eyes which only looked more mischievous behind her delicate lace mask, smirked down at Avery. "Elijah told us he was throwing a Ball and after we heard the real reason for you leaving us, we just had to come visit you."

"Yeah." The blonde finally piped up, her light blue eyes sparkling with youth and joy- blonde curls bouncing in her excitement. "I can't believe you have a twin! It's almost scary at how alike you two look."

Avery opened her mouth to reply but a throat clearing behind her cut her off. As Avery witnessed her two friend's gaze in front of her dart over her shoulders, Avery suddenly remembered she had her other group of friends still there. "Crap! I'm sorry." She turned to her Beacon Hills gang only to find Lydia with an eyebrow quirked at her in questioning. "Ladies, this is Kathleen," She gestured to the tall brunette before gesturing to the blonde. "-and this is Cindy. Kathleen, Cindy- this is Allison, Lydia, and Momma McCall but I'm sure she'll want you to call her Melissa." There was a chorus of  _hey's_ and  _hello's_ before yet another throat was cleared- this time coming from behind Kathleen and Cindy. Avery turned to the boys, grinning all the while. "And the slightly taller male standing behind Cindy is David while his brother next to him is Samuel."

Samuel smiled politely at Avery's new friends while David smirked mischievously at Melissa. "Momma, huh?" He said before elbowing his brother, his own blue eyes sparkling with mirth. "MILF or what?"

Avery, Lydia, and Kathleen all snorted while Allison and Cindy muffled their laughter with their hand. Samuel's dull green eyes nearly bulged out of his head and Melissa looked a mixture of horrified and proud. "Dude." Avery finally laughed while shaking her head. "No. Just no. I hope you know Melissa's a hip mom so she knows what that term means."

David's expression faltered a bit before he gave in and shrugged. "I only speak the truth. Besides, she has some killer legs."

As all eyes darted to said legs, Melissa nervously balancing her weight from foot to foot. "Well while I'm flattered, I'm a bit old for you, young man." She chuckled nervously.

This time it was Samuel, Kathleen, and Cindy who snorted in amusement. "Uh, not really." Avery smiled sheepishly at Melissa. "If anything, you're too young for him." She said before turning to David. "How old are you? Nearing three hundred already?" David pouted and grumbled while his brother and friends laughed. "They're vampires." Avery admitted to her Beacon Hills gang. "They're the ones who would help out when things got sticky back in New Orleans. The only ones who Nik and Elijah trust dearly with my life."

After everyone got over the shock that these four were vampires because they looked so young- which they turned out to be right with three out of the four having been in their teens when turned- Kathleen instructed them that they could now go downstairs.

As everyone adjusted their masks and made sure their hair was perfectly in place- David and Samuel each pulled out masks from their inner coat pocket. While both of their masks covered most of their forehead, nose, and cheekbones- David's differed from Samuel's in color. While David's was a deep purple, Samuel's was a deep red. Cindy pulled her mask out as well, hers having been hidden somewhere behind her back but unlike the others, her mask was held on a stick that she had to hold up on her own instead of tying behind her head.

Soon enough, they were all walking leisurely out of the room and towards the stairs only to be stopped by David. He quickly called out their descent before turning to Avery and her friends- telling them that they were to walk down one by one. Nik demanded it. And with a quick eye roll and shrug to his friend when Avery requested  _why,_ he quickly took Cindy by the hand and led her down the stairs as Samuel helped Kathleen.

When Avery saw her family and friends gather at the foot of the stairs, and all their mumbling came to an abrupt halt- she quickly ducked behind Melissa and told Scott's mom to take the lead. With muffled laughter, Melissa shook her head and descended the steps only to have her picture taken by some stranger with a fancy camera. As the pictures snapped away, Lydia went next and smiled at everyone's praising eyes before Allison followed, and finally Avery.

It seemed with the makeup and hair stylists, Nik and Elijah had also hired a professional photographer to capture the night's events.

After the quick praising of the girl's in their dresses, Avery sidled up next to Isaac and wound her arm through his. It was after everyone's compliments that Avery finally decided to take in all the males and their attire. She had already seen Elijah in his suit, though now he wore a rounded black mask that covered just his eyes. Nik wore the traditional black and white tux, and a bow tie but his mask was more detailed than the others. His mask was similar to Avery's with the Phantom of the Opera theme though his was a solid cracked white with gold swirls.

She expected to her Dad to be in a suit like the others but after staring at him and questioning his choice of a blazer over a black dress shirt- John shrugged and said he was more comfortable in a blazer than a suit- his mask was the same as Elijah's. Stiles' outfit was more unique than the others- his suit being a dark gray plaid with a hint of underlying red lines, and his undershirt was a deep red color. Stiles' mask was made out of leather and had a batman vibe going on with it's sharp edges.

Scott's attire was rather unique as well, he being the only one to pull off a white suit white a vanilla colored vest beneath his jacket. His mask was the second most detailed- his venetian mask varying in colors of bronze, white, and gold- and metallic gold swirls.

As they mingled about at the bottom of the stairs, Avery couldn't help but realize how Allison gravitated towards Scott, Melissa towards John, and Lydia towards Stiles. Everyone seemed to pair off sans Elijah and Nik- though the two brothers were highly content in watching everyone coming together and getting along. When she felt a tug at her elbow, her head snapped to the side and she let her eyes slowly rake up Isaac's suit-clad form. He too wore the classic black and white suit though his tie was loosely tied and hung around his neck. As her eyes continued their upward journey, she caught his impish grin before her eyes landed on the rustic gold and black harlequin mask.

"See something you like?" He mumbled.

Avery chuckled and her eyes twinkled as she reached up, her fingers raking through his curls. "You clean up nice."

"Not as nice as you."

The couple hear various groans and snickers from the group surrounding them and as Avery and Isaac look up- sure enough- everyone is staring back at them with amused expressions.

"If you two are done," Nik flashes them a dimpled smirk. "-may we now proceed to the festivities? Our guests are starting to arrive."

"Yeah, yeah." Avery grumbles as each pair of her friends hooked arms with the person nearest them.

Elijah and Nik led the way to a set of glass doors towards the back of their home. The doors are shut, curtains blocking their view of the outside, but with much more force necessary to open them- Nik and Elijah swing the doors open for the family and friends to see their creation.

The back yard is bigger than what Avery thought, the back yard being set up like no other party she's seen them throw before. There's a medium-sized stone patio that they briefly pause on before walking down the few steps and onto the grass. To the left of the yard, there's the opening in which guests are pushing through curtains of web and fake fog. A strobe light is hidden somewhere in the fog casting eerie shadows on the wall as the guests enter.

There's a small face-painting booth along the edge of the yard, a couple of children already lingering about as their parents watch on. There's various tables of snacks, candy bags, and drinks- and even a fountain towards the back middle of the yard where smoke is emanating from. To the right of the fountain, there are two photo booths which Lydia is already eyeing gleefully, a giant tin tub with a sign declaring  _'Bob for an apple and win a Prize!',_ and finally a small stage where the DJ booth is set up with yet more strobe lights flashing eerily.

And finally, in the middle of it all, there's a wooden dance floor that's nestled in the grass.

"Wow. These guys really go all out."

As the sudden and familiar voice, Avery and friends turn to find Danny and Ethan smiling at them.

"You made it!" Avery cheered. "And you got your masks!" She laughs when she sees they're normal rectangular masks that covers the eye area.

"Yeah. Thanks, by the way." Ethan nodded at her.

"It's no problem. You two can thank me later by squeezing in one of the photo booths with me."

Danny and Ethan agreed while Elijah cleared his throat and gained everyone's attention. "Yes, well, you lot go mingle and play. In half an hour, when more guests arrive, we'll really get things going."

With a mischievous wink towards Avery- who had no idea what he meant by that- Lydia ignored the vague statement before dragging herself and Allison towards the photo booth.

They were going to have many mementos before the night was through.

..

..

With more and more guests arriving and mingling with their every day friends, Avery wondered just what it was that Elijah meant. Halloween themed music softly filled the air, children lined up to have their face painted while others won stuffed animals at the 'bobbing for apples' tank, and others squeezed into the photo booths with peels of laughter. All the while, Nik and Elijah were playing the perfect hosts as they greeted each and every one of their guests.

Surprisingly, both of Avery's groups of friends perfectly got along as they took turns taking pictures in the photo booths. Melissa and John were both surprised to find that other Nurses and a couple of Deputies- along with their families- had got invited and not one person was left alone for the night.

When the music suddenly cut off and the tapping of a mic filled the air, everyone halted in their spots and turned to the DJ booth where Elijah and Nik were standing side-by-side- mics in hand.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, my brother and I would like to start things off by saying thank you for welcoming us into your small town." Elijah paused to smile at the crowd.

"We'd also like to thank you for coming out and celebrating one of my favorite holidays with someone near and dear to my brother and I. Avery, if you will?" Nik smirked out into the crowd.

Avery's face immediately reddened upon being called up even more so when Nik held his hand and signaled for her to come up. With a slight push from both Isaac and Stiles, Avery stumbled forward and cursed both her boyfriend and twin in her mind.

"Avery, as you all know since this is a small town, was the long lost daughter of the Sheriff." Elijah went on to speak as Avery took her spot between the two Reynolds. "It was my brother and I who were the legal guardians of her before she found her true relatives, and it is her presence as well as her father's and brother's that brought us here."

"We got to know the Stilinski family," Nik smirked into his mic. "-and have come to think of them as family of our own. So tonight, we shall celebrate not only family ties but those of friendship within your close knit community."

During the brief pause, there was a moment of applause before the party goers settled down.

"So now that that's out of the way, we're going to kick this Ball off- like any other Ball- with a dance. It's a favorite of mine and it's known as The Broken Tango."

Avery tensed at Elijah's words and became nervous once he asked for the dance floor to be cleared. She watched as Kathleen and Cindy took their spots on one side with wide smiles while Samuel and David stood opposite them across the floor. Excited murmurs spread throughout the crowd as everyone gathered around and just when Avery was about to sneak off to take her place by Isaac, she felt a tug at her elbow and found herself being led onto the floor.

Eyes wide, Avery's head snapped up to meet Nik's dimpled face. "What are you doing?!" She hissed at him through a fake smile.

"Isn't it obvious, kitten? We're going to dance." Nik shoved her towards Kathleen and Cindy- the two girls who then placed Avery between them as they spread out on their side.

"Oh my god." Avery groaned, quickly looking for an escape only to hear the music suddenly fill the air- the violins creating the perfect melody for this dance. She quickly peered over her shoulder to find her twin and dad staring at her- the both of them not knowing she could dance. Everyone else- boyfriend included- all had their phones out and pointed at her. "You guys seriously suck." She mumbled as she and her friends schooled their features to look disinterested, Nik standing directly in front of her across the floor. "When we switch it up, I call David as my partner."

"You can call whoever you want." Cindy muttered. "Just shutup and dance."

..

..

John watched as his teen daughter took her place between her two friends. The girls stood off on one side and faced off with the boys who stood opposite them. When Elijah said they were to dance the broken tango and he saw Nik lead her to the floor, he and Melissa both gasped at the new knowledge that Avery knew this dance.

When they had gotten to know each other, not once did Avery mention she knew how to dance let alone know how to dance the tango. It was such a grown-up dance that as he watched his daughter transform from the nervous and groaning teen to the sophisticated young lady who squared her shoulders and held her head high- he quickly mumbled to Melissa to record the dance.

As John quickly glanced down the edge of the dance floor- he saw every single one of his son's and Avery's friends with their phone out and Stiles finally realizing what was going on as he too finally struggled to free his phone from his pocket.

The moment the music hit a particular note, his gaze darted to the dance floor where both sets of girls and boys stepped up to each other in time with the beat. As each couple approached their dancing partner, the girls each raised a hand and pressed the males back before simultaneously bowing their heads.

Slowly but surely, the girls raised their heads as one of their own hands brushed up along their own arm and across their chest. Facing off with the men and slowly circling each other, the girls sensually placed one hand in the boys while the boys used their other hand to cup the girls upper back and bring them closer together.

As the lyrics came in, the dancing couples slowly walked around each other- turning this way and that way before the men spun the girls- the girls kicking high in the air before they were lowered in a lean and then released to twirl to a new dancing partner.

When Avery collided with David in an intimate hug, John nudged Melissa. "Are you seeing this?"

"Mhm." Melissa hummed as she followed Avery and David with her camera phone. "She's beautiful out there. Claudia would've loved this."

"Indeed." he agreed.

The three couples continued their dance with sharp looks to the left then right, each couple circling around the dance floor in a sophisticated manner. There were sharp twists and turns, the girls falling back only to be caught seconds later by the men's arm behind their head and then lifted so they could start the tango once more. There were more turns before a dramatic drop to the floor that had the men holding the girls before they could fully fall, lifts that had the females freezing in air as the men twirled them in place, and then more turns with kicks as they maneuvered around the floor.

John watched in awe as his daughter moved about beautifully before the music came to a dramatic close that had David holding his daughter's thigh by his hip and dropping her upper body backwards in a dip toward the ground only to freeze in position.

The crowd of onlookers immediately broke out into a loud applause before the dancing couples stood, adjusted their clothes, and took a small bow before slinking off the floor.

"That was beautiful!" Melissa immediately gushed when Avery was in hearing distance.

Avery and her vampire friends took the praise they were given as Elijah and Nik got back on the mic- telling everyone to enjoy the rest of their night before music filled the air once more. Not only was there a professional photographer snapping pictures of the night's events but the local newspaper photographer was there as well. As soon as Avery was enveloped in a hug by John, the local photographer asked the Sheriff if he could snap a picture of him and his kids before snapping one of his family along with the hosts of the party.

When Avery finally found her spot next to Isaac once more, he raised his eyebrows in obvious amusement and slow clapped. "That was.. unexpected. And sexy as hell."

Laughing, she playfully shoved him. "Shutup. Nik and Elijah made me learn loads of things."

"I'm glad they did." He laughed along with her.

Taking his hand in hers, Avery started to drag Isaac towards the photo booths. "Come on, we need to take our cliché boyfriend and girlfriend pics. We have to capture at least one kiss." Isaac chuckled and easily agreed to go along with her. "And then we're getting our faces painted and taking more pics."

True to her word, Avery made Isaac make all sorts of weird facial expressions- majority of them having his eyes closed because the flash affected them- but they came out cute nonetheless.

Isaac didn't want to have his face painted because he was rather fond of his mask so in the end, Avery wrangled Stiles into having his face painted in the same skeleton manner as her own.

* * *

**If you're curious about the dance, go to Youtube and search: Jazmine Sullivan - Bust Your Windows (OST Step Up 3D)**


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Avery's outfit for the day can be found [HERE](http://www.polyvore.com/home_we_might_fall_ch/set?id=104965396).

Avery can feel herself mumbling- nose twitching- as something light and feathery runs up and down the bridge of her nose. Her brain is trying to kick-start her awake but from last night's activities of dancing and running around with her friends, her body is unwilling to move an inch.

A feminine giggle registers in her ears before a deep, yet soft, chuckle sounds next.

"Leave her alone. She seems like the type to lash out when awoken." The deep voice muses.

The feminine one giggles again. "I can't help it. It's been years since I've been able to tease someone like this."

The voices stop and just when Avery doesn't care about hearing voices anymore, her mind starts to catch up on relaxation with her body and starts to drift off once more. Just before she can enter dreamland, a tickle prickles at her nostrils and she violently sneezes herself awake.

Groaning at the jolt of awareness that has been shot through her body, Avery blinks sleepily before sitting up scanning her room for the culprit. And sure enough, there's two of them.

Derek and Cora Hale.

Derek is sitting in her desk chair which has been propped against the wall near her window and Cora is sitting at the edge of her bed- twirling a black feather in her fingers. Chest shaking with silent laughter, Cora picks up something from the bed before pointing it and Avery and snapping a picture. Seconds later, Avery realizes it's Cora's phone.

"What are you doing here?" Avery yawns before letting herself fall back into her pillows. "And how did you get into my room?"

"Your Dad let me up on his way to work." Cora shrugs with a grin. "And Derek climbed in through the window. Nice haircut, by the way."

Avery shakes her head in amusement before opening her eyes and staring at Derek whose eyes are darting all around her face. "You look like you had a good time last night?" He tells her.

"I did. You two missed one hell of a party." Avery yawns yet again. "I tried calling you two plus Peter but I couldn't get a hold of any of you."

"Peter?" Derek's eyebrows draw together. "You mean our Uncle didn't stay in Beacon Hills?"

"Nope." Avery shakes her head. "Disappeared after the Darach fiasco. I figured he left with you."

Derek and Cora share a brief look before both Hales frown and shrugged. "He didn't." Cora tells her. "Probably skipped town now that there's not a Pack for him to join."

"But Scott-"

"Was Peter's beta." Derek cut her off. "He tormented Scott by taking his Mom out on a date. I really doubt Scott wants Peter in his pack and I'm pretty sure Peter would have never asked to join."

After a brief discussion on whether or not she should worry about Peter- and Derek telling her that Peter wouldn't be a problem- Avery scratches at her eyebrow only to come away with black and white paint chips on the tips of her fingers. Brows furrowing in confusing, Avery brushed her finger tips along her face and when she felt the strange texture of her skin- she realized what it was.

"I didn't wash off my face paint, did I?"

"Nope." Cora happily popped the 'p' of her word. "What'd you do, dress up as a skeleton?"

"Not really." Avery answered as she moved to get out of bed, glad that she changed into modest sleeping shorts and tank top before crashing out the previous night. As she stumbled over to her dresser, she explained more to Cora. "It was a masquerade ball. Fancy suits, dresses, masks, and music. Nik and Elijah had some booths set up and towards the end of the night, Stiles and I had our faces painted." She grabbed a stack of long strips- the pictures from the photo booths- from her dresser top before depositing them on the bed in front of Cora. "You guys gonna stick around? I need to shower."

"Yeah." Derek tells her just as Cora hands over the pictures to him that she's already looked at. "We'll be here when you get out."

..

..

After Avery gathered up some clothes for her shower, she sleepily made her way out in the hall and into the bathroom to wash the night's filth away. She would have done so the previous night but given how worn out she felt, she changed into pajamas and fell directly into bed. Her shower would have lasted as long as her usual showers but given the fact she had to scrub and scrub to get the paint off her face, it took a little while longer than normal.

When she was finally dressed in faded ripped skinny jeans and a long-sleeved striped scoop neck shirt, Avery padded her way back into her room while towel drying her hair.

"Feeling refreshed?" Derek mused.

"Oh yeah." She sighed contently before moving to sit at the edge of her bed where Cora was still seated. "So what's up? What'd you sneak into my room for?"

Derek shook his head, staying tight-lipped as he shrugged and Cora rolled her eyes. "He wants to know how everyone's doing? He won't say it now but he's worried about this permanent darkness business."

Avery's amused grin immediately falters and the two Hales easily pick up on her mood change. Suddenly finding the fringe of the rips in her jeans fascinating, Avery avoids any and all eye contact. "They're, uh, they're okay. Scott seemed to get a handle of it pretty quickly so yeah, there's that."

Avery trails off, picking at the fringe as Cora lays a hand atop her own- stalling her. "And your brother? What about Allison?"

"Slightly.. less better." Avery then admitted. "Stiles and Allison pushed us away. They retreated into themselves and it took a good talking to plus some bonding time to make sure they don't do it again." She shrugged nonchalantly. "But you never know, it could happen again and let me tell you.. it wasn't pretty."

Derek sighs, opens his mouth to retort but the sudden banging of Avery's bedroom door slamming open startles them all. "Will you shutup?!" Stiles grumbles, still half asleep in an overly large gray shirt hanging off his lithe frame as well as red plaid pajama pants. He has flecks of paint still lingering on his face but from the looks of it, he actually attempted to scrub it all off the night before. "I'm trying to sleep!"

Cora stifles her giggles while Derek sits up just a little bit straighter, an amused smirk playing across his lips. "Hey there, Stiles. Rough night?"

Stiles blinks rapidly to clear his vision before his realizes who it was who just spoke. "Sourwolf." He acknowledges with a nod though his brows pull together in confusion. "Cora." He then nods at her. "What are you doing here?"

"Being a pain in my ass." Avery answers as she immediately stood and pranced into her closet, finding a pair of suitable shoes and slipping them on- converse shoes which lace up to beneath her knee. "But since we were being too loud, I think I'll take them out. There's some people who want to meet the infamous Hales."

Cora and Derek tense, Stiles' eyebrows furrowing once more before he grins with a snort. "Tell Nik I said Hi." He sleepily chuckles. "And I'm sorry for puking in the apple tub."

Avery laughs as she finds a necklace suitable to her attire- a superman pendant- before slipping it on with a smirk. "Got it, boss. Anything else?"

"Yeah. Bring me some food. I'll heat it up later."

"Mhm. Come on, Hales. We got some Originals to meet." Avery gestures for them to follow. "Please tell me you brought your car and didn't run here?"

"Car's outside." Cora chirps after relaxing as she drags her brother behind her. "Just lead the way."

Derek grumbles the entire way, asking why he had to meet these brothers but all Avery did was hush him and told him it's better to get the meeting out of the way now. She assured him they just wanted to meet them, that there was nothing dangerous about the meeting and for him to relax.

..

..

Derek had actually let Avery drive his vehicle while he took the passenger seat and they made Cora sit in the back. Classic rock softly filtered through the car's speakers as Avery drove- her gaze every now and then darting down to her phone in her lap as she typed out a few text messages. After Derek witnessed her attention darting to her phone for the third time, he swiped her phone and told her to pay attention to the road.

Avery had huffed, ready to argue that she was capable of multi-tasking but that only ended up in earning her a lecture about texting and driving, and it's consequences.

The nearer they drew to the Reynolds' residence, Avery could see Derek perking up in his seat and becoming more alert to his surroundings. And when the house finally came into view, and Avery pulled into the drive-way, Derek finally voiced his thoughts.

"When did this house get here?"

"They started building when they figured out I wanted to live here." Avery grinned. "Being them, they had the best construction team out here and got the house done days before they showed up."

All along the drive-way, there was a person at each stone pillar on a step ladder taking down the jack-o-lanterns. When Avery finally parked- each of them getting out and staring up at the home- there were several other strangers lingering about as they pulled down the fake spider web from archways and hedges. Before they could take a step closer, Avery quickly told them that Nik and Elijah might offer them some expensive gift or offer to take them to an expensive dinner. She told them it was better to accept it than having a pestering Original breathing down their back.

Before Derek could ask why they would be offered anything, Cora cut him off. "Are you sure they're here?" She muttered as she looked up in hidden awe of the home.

Avery nodded. "Yep. They're inside. It was Nik I was texting before your brute of a brother stole my phone."

Derek shoved at Avery's shoulder in a playful manner, his actions shocking himself. While Avery and Cora saw nothing wrong with it, Derek couldn't believe he was falling back into his old ways of being the teasing older brother.

After the fire that took majority of his family- he'd been angry at the Argents and angry at the world. Then his sister Laura left the safety of their home they made in New York only to come back to Beacon Hills were she was slaughtered by their own Uncle. He had been so angry for the longest time that he never thought he'd be able to find his way back.

And now the world threw back at him his little sister who he believed to be dead and yet another Stilinski- this one in female form- and he found himself falling easily into the big brother role who liked to tease and rough-house with his siblings.

By the time Derek re-registered his surroundings, he found himself standing inside a very sophisticated and elegant home. Two men stood across from them- smirking and smiling politely over at them- and he could feel the power emanating from the two Originals wash over him. From his peripheral vision, he could see Cora shiver from the power.

"At last we meet." Elijah smiled. "It's nice to finally put a face to the Hale siblings."

Cora sheepishly smiled but let her brother do all the talking. "I would say 'same here' but then I'd be lying." Derek managed a twitch of his lips. "Avery's showed us so many pictures and told us so many stories. You're Elijah, correct?"

"Indeed, he is." Nik drawled. "Since you know us and we know you- hungry?" He quirked an eyebrow at them in a questioning manner. "We have pizza and chinese- because my dearest brother refuses to eat pizza with his hands- on the way."

Cora looked to her brother to see what he wanted to do but when all he did was offer her a shrug, she turned back to Elijah and Nik with a smile. "I could really go for some chinese if it's not too much trouble."

"Nonsense." Nik waved her words off, stepping forward and offering his elbow as a gentleman should. "Come along, Little Wolf. I'll show you to the kitchen."

Avery nudged Cora in front of her, stifling her giggles before elbowing Derek in his side as way to tell him to follow. They passed up the dining room in favor of sitting at the marbled island that sat smack dab in the middle of the kitchen.

As they waited for the food to be delivered, Avery asked Derek just what it was that they left Beacon Hills for. He admitted that they went on the search for a mythical relic that would double the owner's power but all they found were dead-ends and figured they were better off without it. When Avery didn't say anything, Derek also admitted he only sought it out because he needed to be stronger if he was going to be taking care of himself and Cora.

As Avery asks what they're going to do now that they're back in town, the doorbell rings and Nik excuses himself to go retrieve their food only to come back into the kitchen mid explanation. Derek tells the room that he now has to speak to Scott to see if he and Cora can join his Pack so they're not classified as Omegas.

Nik passes out plates to the group, finding some amusement in the way it physically pained Derek to ask Scott about joining his Pack and it's then that Avery briefly skims over the details on why Derek and Scott are not exactly friends. Nik, Avery, and Derek each have a couple of slices of meat lovers pizza on their plates as Elijah politely passes the noodles, chicken, and rice to Cora so she can help herself.

"So if Scott lets you join, which you know he will since we all know he's not that knowledgeable with the wolfy business, where you gonna live?" Avery muses before diving into her food.

Cora scowls and stabs a piece of sesame chicken with her chopsticks. "Back at the loft." She pops the chicken in her mouth and chews a bit. "But only if it's still empty."

"And if it's not?" Avery questions.

"Dunno." Derek huffs while wiping away the crumbs from his scruff. He hadn't realized how hungry he'd been. "We were born in Beacon Hills so I really don't want to have to leave."

"I see." Avery mumbled as she continued to eat.

The group lapsed into a silence- enjoying the food they had in front of them before Elijah finally spoke something that had been bugging him for a few minutes.

"If I may ask," He wiped his mouth with a napkin before turning his attention to Cora. "-what is wrong with this loft that has you not wanting to be there?"

"Excuse me?" Cora's brows furrowed.

"Earlier," Elijah went on to explain. "-you explained that you'd be staying at the loft if it were empty yet you scowled when you brought it up and angrily attacked your food."

Avery snorted while Cora managed to see seem a bit sheepish before shrugging and avoided Derek's gaze. "It's all concrete and brick." She told him. "No insulation whatsoever and there's a giant gaping hole in one of the brick walls. It's a home but it doesn't exactly have the home vibe."

Cora went back to her food when she saw her brother's guilty expression- feeling bad herself for making her brother feel bad- and missed the look that Elijah and Nik shared. Avery saw the look they shared, her eyes narrowing in suspicion as she watched the brothers talk with only their eyes.

As Derek avoided any and all eye contact, and Cora busied herself with the remaining noodles on her plate- Avery watched the nods and eye crinkling from the two oldest beings in the room. After another moment of silence, Elijah cleared his throat just as Nik looked up and met Avery's gaze.

"Tell me, love, just how much do you trust these Hales?"

Cora and Derek's head snap up at hearing their family name but before they can look at Avery for her answer, she answers without even batting an eye. "With my life."

Derek gapes, Cora chokes on a noodle, Nik smirks, and Elijah nods with a smile. "I figured as much." And before Derek can ask what trust has to do with anything, Elijah turns to him. "What would you say to living here? In this home."

Derek's eyes widen a bit as he tries to wrap his mind around the sudden turn of events and Cora chokes yet again. "I- I don't..  _what?_ "

"My brother and I will be leaving quite soon." Elijah tells him. "While Beacon Hills is Avery's home, it is not ours so therefore we must leave but," He pauses to make sure that Derek and his sister are following. "-we rather not have to hire a stranger to look after our home. We'd rather have someone trusted living here in our absence."

Derek's mouth opens and closes like a fish out of water as he tries produce words but nothing comes. Cora sits there, her gaze darting between Elijah and her brother to see what he's going to say. Living in this home would be a whole hell of a lot better than the loft on the outskirts of town.

"Uh, D?" Avery nudged his shoulder with her own. "Remember what I told you outside? That very expensive gift? Yeah, this is it. Take it."

Nik snorted at her words and that seemed enough to snap Derek back to the situation in front of him. "I, uh, I don't know what to say." He muttered. "If..  _if_ I were to take you up on this offer, what would be expected of us staying here?"

"Not much." Nik butted in. "All we ask is that you take care of the place and do not move into the rooms myself and my brother have already claimed. Every other room is fair game." He gave a moment for that to sink in before continuing. "We'll be hiring some people who will look after the outside of the home, and we'll also have the bills paid so you don't have to worry about that. The only thing you do have to worry about is buying groceries for the two of you."

"We can do that!" Cora blurted before thinking. When all eyes turned to her, she seemed to shrink in on herself before continuing. "My brother has a bit of money set aside and I- I can get a job after school to help, too!"

Cora seemed excited by the prospect of moving in, as did Avery who kept grinning at him that he didn't want to let his little sister down. Not again. With a huff, Derek nods. "Fine. Yeah, we can do that for you."

Cora is up and out of her seat before anyone knows it and is hugging Derek tightly. Nik smirks at the brother-sister duo while Avery chuckles at them. "Splendid." Elijah claps, gaining their attention. "Just so you know, the deed of the home will have to be switched to your name." He tells Derek. "With the deed in our name- as it is currently- any vampire could stroll on in here without an invite. With the deed in your name- since you're still alive and not the living dead- any vampire will need an invite in. Including my brother and I." Derek sighed but nodded nonetheless. "Excellent. If you will please excuse me, I have a few phone calls to make so we can have those papers drawn up as soon as possible."

As Elijah leaves the room and everyone glances around for another topic to discuss, Avery saves them from the impending silence. "So, Nik, what are you going to do with these leftovers." She gestures to the second half box of pizza they have left and some noodles. When all Nik does is shrug, she pulls out her phone from her back pocket. "Well Stiles wanted left overs from wherever we went but since we came here, I'm telling him to wake his ass up if he wants food." She says as she types out the message. "He apologizes, by the way, for puking in the tub of apples." She snorts a laugh.

"Ah, yes." Nik laughs as well. "That's quite alright. At least he waited until the local newspaper photographer left. Town folk would have thought we supplied alcohol from his little accident."

"Yeah, well, you're the one who continued to feed him bags of candy even when my Dad warned you how he got with so much sugar."

Nik snorted another laugh before he started to gather up the dirtied dishes. "It was well worth the entertainment." He smirked. "Why don't you show this house newest inhabitants around while I clean up and ready myself for your twin's arrival."

..

..

Cora and Derek ended up staying the entire day there with Avery- Stiles having showed up a bit after three in the afternoon to eat their leftovers. Avery did as she had been told, giving Derek and Cora a tour of the house which resulted in Cora choosing her room in the process.

When Stiles had decided to take his leave, Derek had told him to get a hold of Scott because there was something Derek needed to speak with him about soon. Stiles nodded and told him he'd be in touch.

As the day gave away to night, Avery and Cora found Nik and Derek bonding over drinks. A door in the distance opened briefly and then shut- Nik telling them that someone else was with Elijah now. Moments later, Elijah walked in with an official looking elderly man with a leather briefcase in hand.

"We have the deed drawn up." He smiled at the room's occupants. "Mr. Hale, if you will." He gestured to the door and then led them all to the nearest study. As Elijah gestured for him to enter and told Nik to go make sure the signing goes according to plan, Elijah pulled Avery off to the side before she could follow them into the study.

"What's going on?"

"Nothing." He assured her. "It's just that with the deed changing hands now, Nik and I will be taking our leave. We plan to leave in the morning before anyone wakes." Avery frowned but nodded nonetheless. She knew they were bound to leave sooner or later but she had preferred later. "And I just wanted to tell you that should you or the McCall Pack ever find yourself in need of some assistance- call. We will drop everything to keep you safe, little one."

Avery's frown faltered before she threw herself at Elijah, hugging him with everything in her being. Face pressed to his chest, she breathed deeply. "Thank you, 'lijah. For everything."

* * *

**Only one chapter left. Which is an epilogue of sorts.**


	25. Chapter 25

**Epilogue**

Months had passed and unsurprisingly, Deaton's words rang true about Beacon Hills becoming a beacon for the supernatural. But surprisingly, so far it had mostly been vampires and werewolves- that of which they've become accustomed to already.

They had a brief run-in with a Traveler, also known as a Gypsy, but when all she created was chaos around town- Scott asked her to leave. She had refused to leave the woods, to leave the power behind, and even went as far as kidnapping one of the wolves to use as leverage so they'd leave her be. Only that was a huge mistake on her part when she kidnapped Isaac.

Avery went on a war-path, using a very colorful language when confronting said Traveler, and when the Traveler told them not to worry because she had him locked up nice and tight- a majority of the Pack went tense and rigid, and expected the worse. Scott threatened her life if anything happened to his beta and regrouped everyone before heading home to think up a new plan. When Avery and Lydia demanded to know what was going on, why they had all freaked out back there, Scott came clean and told them about Isaac's abusive past with his Dad. Lydia was obviously shell-shocked at that piece of news and Avery, well instead of getting emotional and weepy like a few of them expected, Avery transformed right before their eyes into a fierce warrior. She marched right back out to the Traveler's camp, sucker-punched her across the face as she stood there all smug smiles, and did the one thing that was sure to have every supernatural being shaking in their boots.

Avery threatened to call in the Originals- the ones that all Travelers believed to be myth. When Avery assured her that they were indeed no myth, the Traveler gathered her things and fled. Avery had then been quick to run to Isaac's side, untying him before breaking down right there with him. When he asked why she was hysterical, she told him it was because he must have been terrified being alone, tied up, and bound to the confined space of a magical enforced tent. Isaac had sighed, cradled her to his chest and said it was fine. That was all in his past now.

Of course, Avery still called Elijah and Nik, and told them she'd be mailing in an item she nicked from a Traveler for their witches to trace. Once the Traveler got a taste of the power Beacon Hills promised, Avery was pretty sure she'd be back and Avery wanted a heads up should she return.

Nik and Elijah had the Traveler traced but them being who they were, they sent a witch to live with the Hales- who were officially Pack McCall now- to help keep an eye on things. Sophie was her name, a witch born and raised in New Orleans who happily took the job all the way in California. Once she settled in, Avery noticed that Sophie and Derek got along quite well. She also noticed that Cora spent a lot of time at the Stilinski home but not with her- with her brother.

As it turned out, there was nothing romantic between Stiles and Lydia. Stiles and Lydia found out they rather liked how their friendship turned out- and with Aiden and Ethan deciding to stay just until after graduation- not a single person worried about a possible love triangle. Of course, it also helped a bit when Cora started to show some interest in Stiles giving Lydia a chance to play match-maker.

Scott and Allison were doing good, too, the alpha and Huntress finally going back to the way things once were between them.

Life at the Stilinski household was better than ever. With John in the know about everything and everyone, there was no more sneaking around or half ass lies being told to cover their whereabouts or battle wounds.

After Chris had let it slip about the kids sacrificing themselves- John demanded to know what that was about. Avery and Stiles came clean but since it was Chris who spilled the beans, there was no reason for Stiles to out Avery about her killing Jennifer and not Deucalion. In fact, the only people who knew about Avery's hand in Jennifer's demise was Scott, Derek, Stiles, Isaac, Elijah, and Nik. And she'd be damned if anyone else ever found out.

With Cora and Isaac now being constants around the home, John grew more and more comfortable around the werewolves. He grew at ease knowing that a lot of his unsolved case files weren't exactly unsolved after he sat down with Scott and Derek, and the two wolves told him the case files all had supernatural ties and that the murderers had been taken care of.

While John was glad that Stiles finally got over his unrequited love with the Martin girl and started spending time with Cora, he couldn't feel as ecstatic for his daughter and her werewolf boyfriend now. Sure, he adored the lanky werewolf and the fact he could keep his daughter safe but that was still his baby girl. Avery and Isaac took her Dad's mood swings in stride but when he caught their subtle displays of affection and grumbled about wanting to kick the werewolf out of his home and lock up his baby girl- the duo couldn't help but be amused.

And even though John was pretty laid-back about their relationship most of the time- the teenaged couple couldn't help but rebel a little.

* * *

Avery was down in the kitchen, hair hanging damply at her shoulders as she rummaged through the kitchen for a late night snack. She, Stiles, and their Dad had spent the past few hours having a marathon of 'Cops' and pestered their Dad about his earlier life working for the law. They joked about him having to run after criminals and losing his breath half-way through the run, and asked if he ever lost the key to the handcuffs after he'd handcuffed someone.

The first sign of a yawn from Stiles had John interrupting their marathon and telling the kids to go up and get some rest. Stiles and Avery went without complaint, even scrambling up the stairs- much to John's amusement- to see who could get to the shower first.

Of course, Stiles won.

So after waiting for Stiles to get out, Avery finally had her shower for the night before suddenly getting hungry once more. Nothing in the kitchen piqued her hunger but she did find some Cran-Apple in the fridge and quickly poured herself a cup. John had finally gave the drink a shot and it eventually grew on him which he then put it on the grocery list and kept his supply stocked. He knew Avery kept small bottles of them in her mini-fridge so he often teased her about not touching his stock if she didn't share what she had hidden in her room.

And of course, she didn't listen. She drank his stock when he wasn't looking.

Seeing as John was now watching sports, Avery headed back upstairs. Stiles' bedroom door was shut and she didn't feel the need to pester him so she shut herself in her own room.

Grabbing her laptop from her desk, she powered it on in her hands and settled herself down on her bed and against the headboard. The moment she got comfortable with her laptop settled in her lap, a constant tapping noise from her window startled her from her thoughts.

Looking up, she found Isaac sheepishly waving from outside her window. Biting her lip to keep from laughing, she quickly shut her laptop and placed it at the end of her bed as she scrambled to quietly open the window for him.

"What are you doing?" She muttered once the window was finally open.

Isaac leaned in for a quick peck to her lips before pulling himself in. "Scott's parents are arguing again."

"Again? Why won't he take the hint and just leave?!"

"Beats me." Isaac shrugged. "Anyway, Scott decided we should get out while they argued so he headed over to Derek's and I came here."

"I see." She turned back around and climbed back on her bed, taking her laptop with her and flipping the lid back open. When Isaac didn't move from his spot by the window, she rolled her eyes and patted the spot next to her. "Sit. I was just about to check a link 'lijah sent me." She told him as she started clicking and typing away. "They have a private website up with pictures from every shin-dig they've ever thrown and the pictures from Halloween are finally up."

"Shin-dig." Isaac chuckled as he settled in next to her, throwing an arm around her shoulders as he got himself comfortable. "What are you, eighty?"

"Funny." Avery deadpanned before snorting in amusement and then gasping. "Oh no."

"Oh no? What you mean by  _oh no_?" Isaac asked.

Avery merely pointed to the screen, her shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter as Isaac groaned at what he saw. "I hope you don't mind people seeing your  _grr_  face." She chuckled. "I didn't know the booths were linked to the interwebs."

Instead of making fun of her slang, Isaac started scrolling down the page as he steadily found amusement as each picture passed. The photos ranged from that of the photographers camera to those from the photo booth. As the the duo scroll and chuckle at the pictures they hadn't seen before, Isaac comes to a stop on the photo booth picture strip of Allison, Lydia, and Avery.

Apparently, the three girls had snuck off from everyone else and had a picture session of their own. The first two pics were ridiculous- the girls having made  _grr_ faces of their own with  _claws_  and the second had them either crossing their eyes or sticking out their tongue. The third and fourth pics were normal- each girl having a beaming smile in the third and in the fourth, they had smile again though they wore their masks. Finally in the fifth shot, Allison and Avery were each kissing Lydia's cheeks- Lydia caught mid-laugh just as the flash went off.

"Where was I during this?" He mused with a soft smile, lifting up the laptop to transfer into his own lap.

"Shoving your face with caramel apples." Avery snorted.

Isaac hummed in thought before playfully sighing. "Damn. Any chance for a repeat performance? You know, one that I can actually enjoy?" Avery froze, narrowing her eyes at her boyfriend. "Preferably the performance between you and Lydia from Deaton's office."

Avery's brows furrowed then, trying to recall said performance in Deaton's office. It took a minute for her to remember what he was talking about- her panic attack that Lydia stopped by kissing her- and punched his shoulder. "As if."

Isaac laughed, squeezing Avery closer to him so she could snuggle into his side as they continued to scroll down through the page of pictures. "I'm only joking." He assured her. "I'm the only one allowed to kiss you. Lydia got a free pass for the day." He said as he pecked her forehead.

"Oh really?" Avery teased as she looked up, eyes sparkling in amusement.

"Really." Isaac peered down at her, his eyes darting to her lips before pressing a quick kiss there. "See. Only me. Just like that." He said as he pecked her twice more.

Avery grinned into the kisses, one hand reaching up to cradle his jaw in the palm of her hand to guide him back to her lips when he pulled away. Isaac growled into the kiss before nipping at Avery's bottom lip before he closed her laptop and pushed it towards the end of the bed all without pulling his face away from Avery's.

During the duration of their relationship, Isaac found that it was better if he let Avery make the first move before he took charge. Avery had come to terms with being intimate with Isaac though they had yet to actually sleep with each other but neither of them were in any hurry to do so. They were a couple that was actually content with just spending time with each other watching movies or joking around with their friends, and if their makeout sessions got a little carried away, no-one was complaining.

At least not until they stopped each other before going too far.

Isaac had just lowered Avery on her bed, tongues tangling as they tasted each other and nipped at each other. The upper half of his body hovered above her, one arm beneath him as the other gravitated towards her hip where her shirt had ridden up.

The second he started to caress her skin, the bedroom door opened.

"What the fuck, Lahey?!" Stiles' harsh whisper broke the couple apart.

Lips kissed swollen, Isaac and Avery's attention darted to the door where Stiles glared at them. Within the blink of an eye, Isaac had pushed himself off of Avery and completely off the bed as he stared wide-eyed at his girlfriend's brother. Stiles took another step into the room which resulted in Isaac bolting towards the window while throwing, "I'll be at Derek's!", over his shoulder.

With a snort of amusement, Avery watched him disappear from view before Stiles turned his glare on her, his hands settled on his hips looking every bit of a disapproving mother hen.

"What?" Avery feigned innocence. Stiles seemed to huff and puff before Avery cut him off. "Uh-uh." She tutted him. "You say one word to Dad, I'll let it slip to D about the hickies beneath his little sister's shirt."

All fight immediately drained from Stiles, his face going pale as he gaped. "H-how did you know?"

"Please." Avery scoffed. "We're girls. We talk."

Stiles continued to gape some more before he finally snapped his mouth shut. Some color returned to his face, as did a pout when he caught his sister's gaze. "Whatever. Next time, make sure no-one's awake before you two start pawing at each other."

Avery laughed but saluted her brother nonetheless as he exited her room and shut the door behind him.

* * *

Stiles, Cora, and Avery lounged around the living room of the Stilinski home. Avery was reclined in her Dad's recliner, phone in her lap as she was on and off texting Isaac. Stiles and Cora took the couch, Cora laying down so that her head was cushioned by Stiles' lap as they watched TV. They had just finished lunch that Stiles cooked up for them- freshly made pizza with loads of vegetables, mushrooms, and cheese.

They were currently watching  _Captain America_ , the Stilinski twins trying to show Cora all the movies before showing her  _Avengers_ so she knew all their backgrounds and why they were scouted to work for S.H.I.E.L.D.

The credits had just started to roll when Cora sat up to stretch and Stiles stood to put in a new DVD- the next movie being  _Iron Man_ _._  The moment Stiles retook his seat, Avery's phone pinged eliciting a smile from her. She read her message, typed her response, and seconds later another ping sounded.

"What are you grinning at?" Stiles eyed his sister which only caused her grin to grow. "Don't tell me you're sexting your boyfriend."

Avery and Cora both snorted while Stiles grumbled. "If I were, I'd do it in the comfort of my room and not in front of witnesses."

Stiles scowled and this time, Cora laughed. "Speaking of the pup- how are things between you two?"

Avery beamed. "Good. We're in a good place right now."

"So you two are serious?"

Stiles groaned at the girl talk going on now and stalled on pressing 'play' on the main screen.

Avery takes a moment to mull over Cora's words before smiling. "Yeah. I think so." She says before her smile falters which catches Stiles' attention. "At least for now." At Stiles' confused expression, she sighs before explaining herself. "Isaac's a werewolf. He'll age slower than an average human and  _hello_ \- average human here."

"Yeah but you're in league with vampires." Stiles frowned, now throwing in his own input. "Have you ever thought about turning?"

"I have." Avery easily admits with a shrug, silencing her phone when it pinged once more. "But this was before I came here to Beacon Hills and met everyone. Being a vampire though, all aging ceases. It doesn't slow and I don't think I can live forever while watching everyone I've come to care for wither and die."

The trio lapse into a silence after that, choosing to watch the movie and not bring up anything that would turn the mood somber. After  _Iron Man_ they managed to watch  _Hulk_ and  _Thor_ before calling it a night.

..

..

John stood in the archway leading into the kitchen as he watched his son cook them dinner and his daughter sitting on the counter while watching on in amusement. From the gist of the conversation he caught when he walked in, Avery was supposed to be cutting up the lettuce and tomato for their salad but she supposedly mutilated the tomato and was now banned to sit and not touch anything.

"Is it done yet? I'm starving." She whined.

Stiles grumbled something that he couldn't decipher- something that made Avery laugh before clearing his throat to alert them to his presence.

"Pops!" Avery beamed while hopping off the counter. "I made dinner! Hope you enjoy."

Stiles snorted as he simmered spaghetti sauce before moving it off the burner. "Now it's done." He informed his sister. "And you  _wish_  you had my mad cooking skills."

John chuckled at his bickering teens before grabbing him a plate and serving himself up a good portion of the pasta. Stiles got the bowls, making everyone their side dish of salad before laying them on the table and serving himself after Avery was done with her own plate.

As the family ate, they couldn't help but make small talk.

"So, uh, we might have an Omega on our hands again." John muttered before busying his mouth with his drink. "Two bodies came in. Slashed apart." Seeing that his children didn't even grimace or scowl at the mental image while eating spoke volumes. They really were a unique family. "When the Pack goes out, I want you two to sit this one out."

Now that got a reaction out of them.

"What?!"

"You heard me." He grunted. "It's usually only one body we find when dealing with an Omega but there's two this time." He ate some more before explaining. "So that either means there's more than one Omega or this particular werewolf is really vicious. I don't want you out there."

"But, Dad, we can take care of ourselves!" Stiles protested.

At John's blank look, Avery cut in. "Yeah, Dad." She coyly grins at him. "Every outing we go on is dangerous. This one isn't any different." She shrugs. "And besides, we might fall sometimes but we'll always get back up."

* * *

**And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the conclusion for this fic.**

**From the bottom of my heart, I'd like to thank you all for giving this fic a chance, leaving reviews no matter if it was a compliment or your opinion on the pairings. It really means a lot that you took the time to read something that I spent a lot of time putting together.**

**Until next time..**


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